. AN 

ESSAY 

ON 

THE SPIRIT AND INFLUENCE 

OP 

THE REFORMATION OF LUTHER: 

THE WORK WHICH OBTAINED THE PRIZE ON THE QUES- 
TION PROPOSED IN 1802,, BY THE NATIONAL 
INSTITUTE OF FRANCE $ 

u What has been the Influence of the Reformation of Luther on 
the Political situation of the different States of Europe, and 
on the Progress of Knowledge ?" 

WITH 

A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 

FROM ITS 

FOUNDER TO THE REFORMATIONS 

Intended as an Appendix to the Work. 

BY CHARLES'^VILLERS. 



Translated, and Illustrated with Copious Notes^ 
BY JAMES MUX, ESQ, 



Icnrwm x 



PRINTED FOR C. AND R. BALDWIN, NEW BRIDGE-STREET, 

AND R. OGLE, GREAT TURNSTILE | 

AND SOLD AT EDINBURGH, BY P. HILL, J. ANDERSON^ 

AND OGLE AND AIRMAN J AND AT GLASGOW., 

BY BRASH AND REID, AND M. OGLE, 

1805 e 



PREFACE 

BY THE TRANSLATOR, 



WHEN the question which gave occasion to 
this work was first proposed by the National In- 
stitute of France, it particularly attracted the at- 
tention of the translator. In a Catholic country., 
the approbation of Catholicism has in general im- 
plied the belief that every thing opposed to Catho- 
licism is full only of evil. It appeared to him,, 
therefore, a memorable proof of the extraordinarv 
progress of reason and liberality, when a learned 
assembly in a Catholic country proposed to esti- 
mate the beneficent effects which have arisen from 
the great revolt against the Catholic church. 

The work itself gives occasion to additional 
sentiments of satisfaction and surprise. It is an 
unreserved display of all the vices of the papal 
system, and an impartial representation of the 
happy tendency and effects of the Reformation, 
To do justice to this most important subject the 
union of many talents was requisite. It was ne- 
cessary to possess a very extensive and accurate 

a2 



ii Preface by the Translator. 

acquaintance with historical facts, both ecclesias<- 
tical and political, and as well before the Refor- 
mation as after it. And a mind was required ca- 
pable of the most vigorous and profound re- 
flection, accustomed to trace the more important 
and hidden relations by which the series of human 
events is affected, and thoroughly imbued with 
that philosophy which imparts the knowledge of 
the faculties of man, and of the circumstances 
which tend to their improvement. It is enough 
for the present purpose to add that the translator 
w r as surprised to find so many of those great qua- 
lities combined on the present occasion; and of 
the numerous circumstances requisite for the 
perfect elucidation of the subject, he was pleased 
to observe that far more were present than absent. 
A picture, in any degree complete, of the con- 
sequences of the Reformation of Luther upon the 
political condition of man, and upon his intel- 
lectual improvement in Europe, he regards as an 
object of the utmost curiosity and importance. 
The knowledge of the subject communicated in 
the present performance appeared to him great ; 
and he thought that a service of some magnitude 
might be rendered to his countrymen by offering 
it to them in their own language. The views too 
which are presented, in the course of the inquiry, 
respecting the religious and political rights of 
mankind^ appeared to him so liberal and just, to 



Preface by the Translator. iii 

be placed at so proper a distance from those ex- 
travagant projects on the one hand, which are 
neither founded on a knowledge of human affairs, 
nor consistent with their prosperity; and from 
those contracted, mean, and ill-founded principles, 
on the other, that because human creatures often 
make a bad use of their liberty, the smaller part of 
them should always prevent the greater from 
having any, that he thought they could not be 
too generally diffused in a period when men 
are so frequently in extremes. 

As the author immediately addresses himself to 
persons better acquainted with many of the cir- 
cumstances connected with the Reformation, and 
less with others, than the people of this country, 
it appeared to the translator that several particulars 
in the work would require some illustration to his 
countrymen, and in other places that the inquiry 
might be aided by the views of some of our own 
authors, or even by the lights which he himself 
had been enabled to collect. Such is the princi- 
pal intention of the notes. In some places too 
the ideas of the author appeared to stand in need 
of correction. And some notes are added chiefly 
for the sake of the curious particulars which they 
contain ; or to exhibit the opinion of some emi- 
nent author. Upon the whole it is hoped that 
this miscellany will add something both to the 
elucidation and to the interest of the work* 



iv Preface hy the Translator. 

The sketch of ecclesiastical history subjoined is 
so very short, that it was impossible it could be 
explicit in every particular of importance. To 
have written notes on every thing in this whic 
might appear to stand in need of illustration or 
correction, would have required a space altogether 
disproportionate to the text. It was therefore 
thought proper to omit them. 

It is necessary perhaps to remark, that the 
author considers the great inquiry concerning the 
effects of the Reformation of Luther as consisting 
of two parts ; The first, relating to its effects on 
the political affairs of Europe, and on the progress 
of literature ; The second, relating to its effects 
on morals in the nations of Europe, and on the 
religious ideas and character of the people. To 
the first part of the subject he was confined by 
the terms of the question proposed by the Insti- 
tute. The latter part, he observes, forms an in- 
quiry still more difficult, and not less important 
than that which he has attempted to execute. 

Although this work is altogether directed to 
general purposes and conclusions, it is hardly pos- 
sible, at the present moment, to avoid making a 
particular. application in regard to one department 
of British affairs. It appears an object of great 
importance to all those who truly understand, and 
wish well to the interests of Great Britain, not 
onlv that the Catholics of Ireland should be eman- 



Preface by the Translator. v 

cipated from all political disqualifications, but 
that they should be converted from a system, in 
its best shape, so much more unfavourable to their 
progress in reason and virtue, than that embraced 
by the rest of their fellow subjects. Were the 
Roman Catholics of Ireland delivered from those 
circumstances which lead them to regard the Pro- 
testants as their enemies, and brought to look 
without suspicion upon any thing presented to 
them by Protestants, a book, like this, in which 
the defects of the papal system, and its evil ten- 
dency with regard to all the best interests of men, 
are more fully and accurately pourtrayed than 
they have ever yet been, could not fail, approved 
too as it has been by Catholics, and in a Catholic 
country, to have the most powerful effects on the 
minds of all the best informed and superior classes, 
effects which would speedily descend from them 
to their inferiors. 



CONTENTS. 



PART FIRST. 

General Reflections. 

SECTION I. 
0?i the State of the Question, . , . , Page 1 

SECTION II. 
On the Essence of Reformations in general, . . 17 

SECTION III. 

On that of Luther in Particular - 62 

A Sketch of the Political, Religious, and Li- 
terary State of Europe at the beginning of 
the Sixteenth Century, Part first. Politics 6q 

Part second. Religion 81 

Part third. Literature * . . . . 88 

Reformation Q4 

SECTION IV. 
Conjectures regarding what would have hap - 
pened in Europe, if the Reformation had not 
taken place; ivhether the Spirit of the Hier- 
archy would have changed, . 5 , . 125 

b 



Contents* 

PART SECOND. 

Influence of the Reformation. 

CHAPTER i. 
On the political Situation of the States of 
Europe Page 1 3Q 

SECTION I. 
On the Church, and its Connection with the 
States ]4l 

SECTION II. 

On the principal States of Christendom 172 

First Inquiry. — Internal Situation of the States. 

I. Protestant Countries ibid. 

Germany ] Q3 

Denmark ICQ 

Sweden . . . , 211 

Switzerland 2 J 3 

Geneva 2l6 

Holland . . .. 221 

England 224 

United States of America 225 

II. States of which the Governments have not 

embraced the Reformation. 

Spain *........., 245 

France , « . 24S 



Contents, ix 

Italy Page 257 

Poland 258 

Russia . 262 

Second Inquiry. — External Situation of the States 
of Europe, in regard to one another. 

The balance of Power 264 

First Period, from 1520 to 1556 . . . . 272 

Second Period, from 1556 to l603 274 

Third Period, from l6o3 to 1648 277 

Recapitulation of the Effects of the Reforma- 
tion in regard to Politics . t 280 

CHAPTER II. 
On the Progress of Knowledge. t 284 

SECTION I. 

Effects of the moral Impulse communicated by 

the Reformation 287 

In regard to the Liberty of thought. . 288 

In regard to the study of Religion, ancient 

Languages, Exegesis, Archeology, History 2Q7 
In regard to Philosophy and the moral and 

political Sciences , 312 

In regard to the physical and mathematical 

Sciences ......*..... 333 

In regard to the Belles Lettres and modern 

Languages 337 

In regard to the fine Arts 34/ 

1 



x Contents. 

SECTION IX. 

Consequences of the Events which accompanied 
and followed the Reformation. 

Disturbances and Wars in the political 

World; Controversies in the theological 352 
Secret societies, Freemasons, Rosy crucians, 

Mystics, Illuminati 364 

Jesuits, Jansenists, &c* 374 

A Reflection concerning the uses made of the 
Wtalth of the Church 392 

Recapitulation of the Effects of the Reforma- 
tion, in regard to the Progress of Know- 
ledge 396 

Conclusion 399 



A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
FROM ITS FOUNDER TO THE REFORMATION. 

First Period. — Democracy. — From Jesus to 
Constantine 40Q 

Second Period. — Oligarchy. — From Constan- 
tine to Mahomet 426 

Third Period. — Monarchy. — From Mahomet 
to Hildebrand 447 

Fourth Period. — Despotism. — From Hilde- 
brand to Luther * . 46^ 

Conclusion , 476 



ESSAY, Sec. 

PART FIRST. 






GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
SECTION I. 

On the State of the Question. 

AF, during one of the centuries which preceded 
the sixteenth, when no barrier had as yet been 
raised against the supremacy of the Roman Pon- 
tiffs, a learned assembly had come to the reso- 
lution of estimating the effects of a schism, of an 
opinion contrary to that of Rome, the question 
undoubtedly would have been conceived in the 
following terms; "What are the evils, and what the 
scandal to which the church has been subjected 
by means of the impious and pernicious doctrine 
which has been stated?" At the present period,, 
when several respectable nations have separated 
themselves from the church of Rome, when the 
intimate connections which subsist between the 

£ 



Jjtm^'- 



2 Spirit and Influence of the 

nations of Europe have habituated the adherents 
of Rome to behold among the professors of a 
different religion communities equally well regu- 
lated, equally virtuous, and equally enlightened 
with themselves, the question is naturally an- 
nounced in a different manner. An assembly of 
philosophers in the heart of France, restored to 
Catholicism, propose, " To determine the influ- 
ence of the Reformation of Luther upon the state 
of society in Europe, and upon the progress of 
reason and knowledge." This change in our 
language implies an important one in our opi- 
nions, and in this view of the subject, it may be 
asserted that the question answers itself.* 

* If the question, thus stated, refer, as it appears evidently 
to do, to the beneficial influence of the Reformation, it denotes 
an era in the progress of liberality and knowledge. This is the 
first declaration in favour of the great revolt from Popish domi- 
nion, which has been made by a public and constituted body in 
a_Pqpish country. An opinion must be thoroughly ripe before 
it can be published in this manner. It was by slow degrees that 
popery succeeded in burring all liberality and freedom of mind. 
Ten centuries it laboured either to accomplish or preserve the 
conquest. Three centuries only have revolved since the rebel- 
lion ; and the votaries of popery itself declare to the whole 
world that this rebellion was beneficial to the human race. 

Yet it was in this very country, that within a shorter period 
than three centuries all the horrors of a St. Bartholomew's day 
were perpetrated: when a king of France, from the windows 
of his palace, fired with his own hand at his alarmed and dis- 
tracted subjects, as they were swimming across the river to 



Reformation of Luther. 3 

As the Institute has not accompanied this 
question with any preliminary explanation, the 
following observations, of which the object is to 
ascertain the sense and limits of the reply, cannot 
appear out of place. 

escape from death, calling out incessantly, Kill, kill! and 
when the fanatical murderers pursued into the chamber of the 
king's sister, Marguerite de Valois, and even to the bed in 
which she was lying, some officers belonging to the court, 
whom they suspected of Protestantism. 

" On the evening of St. Bartholomew," says Hume, " the 
signal was given for a general massacre. The hatred, long en- 
tertained by the Parisians against the Protestants, made them 
second, without any preparation, the fury of the court $ and 
persons of every condition, age, and sex, suspected of any 
propensity to that religion, were involved in an undistinguished 
ruin. The streets of Paris flowed with blood ; and the people, 
more enraged than satiated with their cruelty, as if repining 
that death had saved the victims from farther insult, exercised 
on their dead bodies all the rage of the most licentious brutality. 
Orders were instantly dispatched to all the provinces for a like 
general execution of the Protestants } and in Rouen, Lyons, 
and many other cities, the people emulated the fury of the 
capital." 

Even so late as the time of our own happy revolution, the 
revocation of the edict of Nantz produced the most deplorable 
scenes in France j and upwards of half a million of her most 
useful citizens were happy to fly from their native land, and 
abandon their means of subsistence, to escape the horrors of 
the persecution to which they were subject. 

We shall be told that France stripped herself of religion -, 
and that she is now restored to Catholicism in name rather than 
in reality. This is no objection to the exhilarating conclusion 

B2 



4 Spirit and Influence of the 

A reformation in religion appears at first sight 
calculated to produce effects only on that which 
concerns religion, on the doctrine and discipline 
of the church. But, long before the Reformation 
of Luther, the church and the state had become 
so blended together in all the political systems in 
Europe, that it was impossible to shake the one 
without communicating the shock to the other. 
The church, which every where formed a state 
within the state, had so far pushed its encroach- 
ments upon the latter, that it threatened to 
swallow it up. All Europe had long been in 
danger of passing under the yoke of an absolute 
theocracy. The sovereigns of the new Empire of 
the West, who saved it from that destiny, alarmed 
it in their turn with the project of an universal 
monarchy. The kings of France, of England, 
of Sweden, and of Denmark, the princes and 
free cities of Germany and Italy opposed only par- 
tially and successively the pretensions of either 



respecting the progress of reason. It is no small matter that 
France is stripped of bigotry and superstition. This is the first 
step. The transition from no religion to a pure religion is, in 
a whole people, much easier than from a corrupt and pernicious, 
to a pure religion. The propensity in man to religious senti- 
ments will ever prevent a nation from being long without a 
religion j and the intermediate state, which produces writings 
like that we are now perusing, so powerfully Calculated to in- 
troduce a good religion, cannot be considered as useless. 



Reformation of Luther. 5 

competitor. A new impulse, a new and pow- 
erful tie which bound together the oppressed 
against the two oppressors at once, an event 
which wakened the passions of men, the love of 
liberty, and religious and political enthusiasm 
which doubled the power of princes by inflaming 
the minds of their subjects, which, together w T ith 
independence, offered to rulers the rich prey of 
the spoils of the clergy ; an event, I say, like this, 
must needs, in such a juncture, produce an uni- 
versal agitation in Europe. The fabric of modern 
states was shaken by it to the very foundation. 
During the long and painful struggle which en- 
sued, every thing obtained a new form and posi- 
tion. A new political order arose out of the 
general fermentation and confusion ; the different 
elements of which it is composed, long and vari- 
ously agitated, obeyed at last the gravitating law 
of the moral world, and assumed the place as- 
signed by their respective weight, which was not, 
however, in general, the place which they for^ 
merly occupied. A new order of ideas also sprung 
up from the agitation of opinions. Men dared 
to think, to reason, and to examine what before 
only challenged a blind submission. Thus a 
simple stroke aimed at the discipline of the church 
was the cause of a considerable change in the 
political situation of the states of Europe, and in 
the moral culture of its inhabitants. The Insti- 



6 Spirit and Influence of the 

tute, therefore, was animated with the true spirit 
of history when it prompted the solution of the 
problem which it has stated so well. It is glorious 
for a writer to treat, before such an assembly, of 
religion and politics, those two cardinal points of 
the life of man. One of the first prerogatives of 
true liberty, is the power of full and unconstrained 
expression on those important subjects; and in 
whatever country that power is exercised, infallibly 
that country is free.* 

* It is impossible to deny that this compliment to the Insti- 
tute is, in this instance at least, well deserved. We are enabled 
to say so with still greater evidence, now that it has given its 
suffrage to a work in which so many free and noble sentirr. 
are contained. To enhance the merit of that assembly, it is to 
be remembered that it is placed under a government by no 
means very favourable to freedom of opinion ; and that general 
tone of mind which this book has a tendency to inspire, is one 
which Bonaparte would be very sorry to see gaining ground 
among his people. The circumstances attending this publi ca- 
tion, however, are a sufficient proof that such a tone of mind 
is gaining ground among them, and that it is too strong for all 
the powers of Bonaparte to resist. It is produced by the cir- 
cumstances of the race, the situation into which the spec ie 
large is now brought 5 and no attempts of any body of men in 
any quarter will avail against it. 

The author conveys a lesson, which will not be misunderstood, 
when he states the freedom of expression, with regard to re] _ 
and politics, as the grand criterion of the liberty of every 
country. With regard to religion, Bonaparte indeed is not 
disposed to be without indulgence. But Frenchmen . cannot 
consider their liberty of expression very complete in regard to 



Reformation of Luther. 7 

The Institute, by inquiring what has been the 
influence of the Reformation of Luther, indicates 
clearly enough its opinion, that this influence has 
now ceased, or at least has no longer an active 
existence. In fact, nearly three centuries have 
now elapsed since the first explosion. The agita- 
tion which it produced has subsided by degrees ; 
the force which originally communicated the im- 
pulse, and by which so many new phaenomena 
were produced, has ceased to act as a living power, 
as a productive principle. The institutions which 
it created, and those which it modified, have, for 
the most part, continued; some have disappeared; 
but those which have remained follow at the 
present period the general course of events, and 
that course is no longer directed by the Reforma- 
tion as an immediate cause. It has performed in a 
great measure, what it was destined to perform. 
Its present influence is of a derived and secondary 
nature; gentle, and visible only in the effects of 
the institutions which derive from it their birth, 

politics. They know and feel that no restraint can be more 
complete. The conclusion to which they are here called to 
attend is, that they are not free. It is a hint, a suggestion 
which it was worthy of a philosopher and a man of spirit to 
give. It will not be without its effect. This book has run 
with great rapidity through France, and over all Europe ; and 
in most places it will diffuse clearer ideas of the civil and reli- 
gious rights of mankind. 



8 Spirit and In/Zuencc of the 

The time then has arrived, when a judgment of it 
may be formed, when we can enumerate and dis- 
cuss the benefits and the evils which it has pro- 
duced to the human race* It is undoubtedly 
conformable to the views of the Institute that I 
should confine myself to specify exactly the more 
immediate effects of the Reformation, and content 
myself with a slight notice of its remoter conse- 
quences. Were it proposed to enter into the 
detail of these last, it would be necessary to draw 
the immense picture of the history of the states 
of Europe from that epoch, since there is scarcely 
any great event, or any result of the Reformation, 
such, for example, as the actual constitution of 
the Germanic Body, or the Republic of the United 
Provinces, the influence of which in its turn has 
not been greater or less. It would be impossible 
ever to find a way out of this labyrinth of secondary 
consequences. For, to regard the matter thus, 
the influence of every political or religious com- 
motion is propagated to infinitude. We still at 
this moment feel more or less what happened in 
India, Arabia, Greece, and Italy, in very distant 
times. We yet live under the very perceptible 
influence of the invasion of the people* of the 
north, of the crusades, and other political move- 
ments, which have become principles of action 
among the nations. The line of the culture of 
nations, a line deviating, often winding, sometimes 

7 



Reform atiort of Luther, ■ ■ 9 

retrograde, is formed by the complicated action of 
so many different forces; to mark its turnings, 
and deflections, in estimating the forces which 
concurred in its production, is the business of the 
philosophy of history. The author of the pre- 
sent inquiry will regard it as sufficient happiness, 
i£ ; his judges are of opinion that he has completed 
a similar task, in regard to that period of modern 
history when the Reformation was the predomi- 
nant force. 

Meanwhile it is impossible for a man to engage 
in the inquiry into the effects of the Reformation 
without finding himself constrained to make this 
reflection; " Is not that great event which I 
consider as a cause itself the simple result of 
other events which have preceded it ? and must 
I not, on this account, refer to them, and not 
to ity which has been only an intermediate agent, 
the real origin of all that has followed ?" As- 
suredly; such is the lot of mind in its researches. 
While it looks forward, the point of its departure 
appears^to be a fixed station from which the suc- 
ceeding steps have proceeded. On looking back- 
wards, the first point appears to it but a necessary 
connection of those beyond it, and the step, as 
it were, by which one passes to those on the 
other side. To the eye of the mind, every 
event as it traces it upwards becomes a simple 
effect ; every effect as it traces it downwards be- 



10 Spirit and Influence of the 

comes In its turn a cause. The principle which 
leads us to attribute to an event every thing which 
follows that even^ as if it were its effect, is the 
conducting thread by which we are enabled to 
arrange historical facts. It is the law of cohesion, 
by which the present is united to the past. To 
mount up in this manner from the effect to the 
cause, even to a First Cause subsisting by itself, 
and which is the effect of no other cause, is a 
want, a demand of our intellectual nature, which 
searches for an absolute principle in which its 
speculations terminate. On this deceitful path it 
is that Metaphysics loses her way. — A man en- 
tirely unacquainted with the nature of a river, 
arriving on the banks of one, and observing it 
here to flow in an extensive plain, there confined 
in a narrow channel, in another place foaming by 
the agitation of a cataract; such a man would 
regard the first turning of the stream where it 
might lie concealed from his eye as the origin of 
tKe river; should he ascend, the cataract would 
produce a similar illusion; having reached the 
source at last, he would consider the mountain 
from which it issues as the primary cause of the 
river: he would soon however reflect, that the 
bowels of the mountain must shortly be exhausted 
by so constant a stream ; he will observe the ac- 
cumulation of clouds, the rains, without which 
the drained mountain would yield no water. 



Reformation of Luther. 1 1 

Thus do the clouds become the primary cause; 
but those are brought by the winds which sweep 
the great seas: and by the sun it is that they are 
raised from the sea. Whence then comes this 
power in the sun ? Thus is he quickly conducted 
to the inquiries of speculative physics, by the 
search of a cause, of an absolute principle from 
which he may deduce in the last resort the expla- 
nation of so many phenomena. 

In this manner the historian who inquires into 
the cause of the decline of the papal authority, 
of the terrible war of thirty years, of the re- 
duction of the House of Austria, the establish- 
ment of a powerful opposition in the heart of 
the empire, the erection of Holland into a free 
state, and so of the rest, must ^t first behold the 
immediate origin of all those events in the Re- 
formation, and attribute them unconditionally to 
its influence. But pushing his researches higher, 
he perceives that the Reformation itself is evi- 
dently but a necessary result of other circum- 
stances which preceded it ; an event of the 
sixteenth century, with which, to use an ex- 
pression of Leibnitz, the fifteenth was pregnant ; 
at most only the cataract of the river. How 
many people still obstinately persist in referring 
the French revolution to the deficit, as its pri- 
mary cause, to the convocation of the states 



32 Spirit and Influence of the 

general, to the tiers etat } to the parish clergy.* 
Others, who look somewhat farther, think they 

* The difficulties in which the French crown was involved, 
immediately previous to the revolution, are well known. The 
public income fell short of the expenditure of the court j and 
the term by which this disproportion is expressed, is the deficit. 
Those difficulties, and the impossibility which was felt of 
Increasing the taxes without new and important changes in the 
government, produced the convocation of the states general. 
And in that national assembly, as is well known, the revolution 
began. 

In the feudal kingdoms of Europe the people were regarded 
as consisting of three orders, or states, as they were called; 
that of the nobility, that of the clergy, and that of the com- 
monalty. When the affairs of a nation required a consulta- 
tion of the whole people, the assembly distinguished into these 
orders, was called the states general, that is the general assem- 
bly of the three states. The order of commonalty was in 
France denominated the tiers etat, or third state. The consti- 
tution of this order was never so exactly ascertained as in 
England. It is well known that the representatives of cities 
were in itj but no order of persons, corresponding to our 
knights of shires ; and the great body of peasantry was not re- 
presented in the national council. These assemblies are plainly 
of the same nature with our parliaments in the more early 
periods. But the power of the aristocracy in this country 
obliged the king to strengthen himself by the alliance of par- 
liaments for an extensive period 3 and afterwards the spirit and 
power of parliaments made it impracticable for him to lay 
them aside, when the power of the aristocracy declined j and 
thus parliaments have been continued in this country; whereas 
the states general were early set aside by the kings of France, 



Reformation of Luther, 13 

find that cause in a particular parliament, in the 

When the financial difficulties in France rendered the wheels of 
government incapable of moving any longer, every expedient 
was had recourse to, rather than convoke this almost forgotten 
assembly. The assembly of the notables was first tried, con- 
sisting of the nobility and higher clergy, with such persons of 
the third estate as the king chose to call. To them was pro- 
posed the abolition of the exemption of the nobility, and clergy 
from taxes, and of other abuses. But it was not obtained. 
The states general, which were called for on all sides, were 
lecurred to as no longer avoidable. Those who discover the 
origin of the French revolution in this assembly, must needs 
search a little for the cause of that assembly itself ; and still 
more for the cause why that assembly was more dangerous in 
the present age, to kingly powers, than in former ones, when 
it had been its protection. This danger arose from the change 
in the circumstances of the king and of the people, and from the 
change in opinion. And to trace and appreciate those changes, 
has been very little either in the talents or intentions of the per- 
sons who have hitherto declaimed upon the French revolution. 
Among those who fnd the cause of the French revolution 
entirely or principally in the tiers etat is Mr. Burke. " After" 
says he, " I had read over the list of the persons and descrip- 
tions elected into the tiers etat, nothing which they afterwards 
did could appear astonishing." Yet the tiers etat unquestion- 
ably afforded a pretty fair representation of the opinions, pro- 
jects, and principles predominant in the nation. If that be the 
case, what was the cause of this general tone, and habit of 
thought, which as soon as it found an occasion of acting must 
necessarily produce such scenes as the French revolution ? This 
formed no part of Mr. Burke's inquiry. The composition of 
the tiers etat, unfit as it was for the transcendently difficult 
work of reforming a disordered state, arose out of the general 
circumstances of France, and was as little the effect of parti- 



1 4 Spirit and Influence of the 

extinction of the Jesuits, &c* They are all 
right under a certain limited point of view which 

cular, and momentary causes, as the composition and tone of 
the Diet of Augsburg. 

* The word parliament in the English language is near in 
signification to the term states general in French. In this last 
tongue the word parliament was used in a very different sense. 
It was applied to certain courts of justice, composed of a con- 
siderable number of judges. It had been usual for the kings 
of France to have their edicts registered by those parliaments, 
particularly by that of Paris. These edicts, there being no 
constituted legislature in France, were the laws 5 but by long 
practice, it came to be generally conceived that they were not 
of the force of laws, — till they were registered by the par- 
liaments. On this ground the parliaments had often remon- 
strated against unpatriotic edicts, and had prevented their exe- 
cution. For a series of years the disputes, of this nature, had 
continued to grow more violent 3 and the opposition which the 
parliaments had made to the edicts for imposing new taxes had 
contributed greatly to bring the difficulties of government to a 
crisis. Those who see not the operation of general causes in 
this gradual opposition are certainly not very profound contem- 
plators of history. 

The extinction of the Jesuits, which however had become 
absolutely necessary, certainly gave a blow to the ancient 
systems both religious and political, in all the Catholic countries 
of Europe j and contributed to shake the decayed edifice. In 
all those countries where the Catholic system remains incorpo- 
rated with the political, the gradual and inevitable decay of the 
one must affect the other ; and every mouldering piece which 
tumbles, from the one carries with it a portion of the other. 
But is the decay of the Catholic system also to be ascribed to 
the authors of jacobinism in France ? 



Reformation of Luther. 15 

belongs to them. Those however, whose eye 
contemplates the progress of the human race 
through a series of ages, behold the movements 
of that enormous mass of individuals, each of 
whom, instigated by his interest, his passions, 
and his peculiar character, seems desirous to op- 
pose the progress of all the rest; but, in spite of 
their infinite diversity, all those minds have com- 
mon characteristics, are directed toward certain 
ends, which are finally the same ; those charac- 
teristics, those tendencies, common to all, form 
an union of forces, or rather a single force, 
which is that of the human race, that of an 
universal spirit, which concealed in the lapse 
of ages, governs and directs them. Under the 
dominion of Providence (that sun of the moral 
world, to use again the language of a philoso- 

It is wonderful that the author has not here mentioned a 
cause of the revolution in France on which such mighty stress 
has been laid in this country , I mean the writings of the 
philosophers. It does not appear that the people on the conti- 
nent judge more soundly of that event than we do. The 
analogy is strong between the complaints against these authors, 
and those of the partisans of the church of Rome in the six- 
teenth century, against Erasmus, who, they said, laid the egg 
which Luther only hatched. The question has been asked, 
with great propriety, what were the circumstances by which 
Erasmus and others were prepared and formed to write as they 
did j and the people to listen to them? And the question holds 
in equal strength with regard to Voltaire and Rousseau, 

9 



1 6 Spirit and Injlutnce of the 

pher) that spirit of the human race, in its con- 
tinual operation, prepares and regulates events, 
Any great revolution which surprises us is only 
a product of it. a result, a striking manifestation. 
Is it then to this revolution; is it not rather to 
the influence of the causes which have preceded 
and produced the revolution, that we ought to 
attribute the events which have followed it ? 

It belongs then to the historian, in the case 
supposed, to direct his attention to what preceded 
the great event which he examines ; to determine 
by the influence of what causes that event was* 
itself brought about, and what has been the ex- 
tent of the influence of those same causes on 
the series of subsequent events. It belongs to 
him also to consider what would have happened 
according to the slow and progressive movement 
of the human race, which is sometimes entitled 
the . natural course of things, if the great event, 
if the ebullition, under consideration, had not 
taken place. Finally, he ought to determine 
what modifications the peculiar and distinctive 
character of that event, the character of the age 
and nation in which it was produced, and that of 
the men who had the principal share in it, have 
communicated to its effects* 



Reformation of Luther* 3 7 

SECTION II. 

On the Essence of Reformations in general, 

.As the mind ascends the chain of events, and 
passes on from every effect to its cause, in order 
to arrive at last at a first cause, at an ultimate 
principle, to which it attaches the first link of the 
chain; in like manner it proceeds downwards from 
causes to effects, eager to arrive at a last result, 
an absolute effect, which is complete in itself], 
and no longer becomes a cause, or plays the part 
only of a means to arrive at something else. 
This effect, which terminates every thing, the 
last link of the chain, and the final result of all 
that has preceded, is the end pursued by the 
mind, the place of rest where it consents at last 
to repose. All its speculations concerning hu- 
man events are divided into those two inquiries, 
respecting the beginning and respecting the end; 
whence they come, and whither they tend. Be- 
tween those two points the activity of the mind 
is confined. And it renders the distance between 
them greater or less according to its extent or its 
demands. But until it has arrived, in one direc- 
tion, at a cause which it thinks it has reason to 
consider as a first cause; and in another, at an 

C 



18 Spirit and Influence of the 

effect which it regards as final, the mind of man 
remains in suspense, vacillates in a forced equi- 
librium, and feels the uneasiness of an unaccom- 
plished destination. Resignation is indeed at- 
tainable with regard to the space which it declines 
to traverse, and it may assign to itself a limit 
which restrains the full expansion of its powers ; 
but this resignation is not competent to every 
one, and is not in the primitive nature perhaps of 
any one. 

Do we then give permission to him who con- 
templates the history of the human race, to ask 
of himself whither tends that succession of tu- 
multuous events, of commotions, and of trans- 
mutations in things and in opinions? Let him 
give free scope to his mind in pursuing the end of 
so many progressive revolutions. — He can find it 
only in the sublime idea of a state of things, in 
which, the destination of the whole human race 
being fully consummated, all their physical and 
moral powers having attained their highest degree 
of improvement, mankind would be as good, as 
wise, and as happy as the original qualities of 
their nature permit. Not that it can be demon- 
strated that this golden age of morality, this mil- 
lennium of philosophy can even be realized as the 
dream of philanthropy exhibits it to our imagina- 
tion. But in the efforts of man, in those of so- 
ciety, we cannot avoid perceiving a tendency to- 

7 



Reformation of Luther. It) 

Wards the better, towards an order of things more 
just, more beneficent, in which the rights of 
every one are better guarded, and those rights 
more equally divided. Let us grant that absolute 
perfection will never be the lot of mortals ; but* 
at the same time, let us acknowledge that this 
perfection forms the ideal object of their desire, 
that it is a want, a demand of their intellectual 
nature. It is not clear that they will ever arrive 
at it; but it is certain that they aspire to it. Per^ 
adventure the phenomenon of the geometrical 
assymptote is destined to be repeated in the moral 
world, and that we shall for ever approximate to 
the ellipse without being able to touch it. Mean- 
while the hope even of approximation is sufficient 
to inflame the more noble spirits, and is an object 
not unworthy of them. Ah ! what would be the 
lot of the generations to follow, what the despair 
of him who reflects upon them, if in the chaos 
of human affairs the laws of an inexhaustible 
creation did not exhibit themselves, if, in the 
darkest storms, by which every thing appears 
ready to be swallowed up, the lightening of Pro- 
vidence did not afford through the gloom tl^e 
glimpses of a better futurity! True it is, that 
when the tempests are let loose, and hurricanes, 
raised by the passions of men, rage on the ocean 
of time, the vessel cannot hold her course direct 
to the destined harbour. The spectator is some- 

* 2 



20 Spirit and Influence of the 

times deceived, and thinks the motion retrograde, 
when it is not. For all are not provided with a 
chart sufficiently correct, to know the course of 
the voyage. Those however who pretend that 
the motion is retrograde acknowledge by that act- 
the existence of the destination to which the mo- 
tion tends, since to retrograde is only to remove 
from it to a greater distance. But should this 
removal even have place for a time, can it follow 
from this that the approximation will not return, 
and with increased velocity? Is not that a limited 
view which extends not beyond the point of de- 
parture? To judge of the whole course, it must 
be contemplated entire. That which human na- 
ture shall run after us is not known to us; but 
we may form presumptive conclusions respecting 
it by that which has been run before us. Up to 
our time the species has made progress ; it is 
credible that our successors will do the same. — 
Greece and Italy, barbarous in their early ages, 
were far behind Greece and Italy in the brilliant 
days of their improvement. But however emi- 
nent, in many respects, that improvement may 
have been, it w 7 as peculiar -to each of those na- 
tions, and exclusive with regard to the rest. It 
belonged to the citizen of Athens, to the citizen 
of Rome, It belonged not to man. All the 
rest of the globe was born to an inheritance of 
barbaritv, and slavery, of practical slavery, beneath. 



Reformation ef Luther. 21 

sl few millions of men. Was improvement to be 
confined for ever to a few cities, to a narrow - 
corner of the earth? Were the millions of human 
beings who vegetated in the store house of na- 
tions between the Oby and the Elbe to remain 
eternal strangers to it, and to be for ever only 
the swordsmen or galley slaves of the privileged 
orders ? No ; most assuredly ! Among them too 
the dispersion of light was to take place; an in- 
tercourse was to be formed by which the spirit of 
Latium and of Achaia was to be carried to the 
Cimbrian Chersonese. To accomplish this event 
it was necessary either that the small number of 
people with whom improvement was lodged should 
subdue innumerable nations, and penetrate to the 
remotest corners of the most distant regions; or 
that the mass of uncultivated nations should con- 
quer the small number, and become incorporated 
with them, in the native place of illumination. 
After the first of those means had been tried, and 
the Romans had penetrated as far as was con- 
sistent with a power and a virtue worthy of eter- 
nal admiration, the second, more natural,' was 
set in action by the mysterious Arbiter of human 
events. The children of the north poured them- 
selves out upon the south of Europe, and carried 
their own darkness along with them. Chaos ap- 
peared to come again. Scarcely here and there a 
feeble spark of light appeared in the midnight 



22 Spirit and Influence of the 

gloom, which lasted the time proportioned to the 
foreign mass which had arrived. Ten ages of 
(fermentation were necessary to assimilate so 
many ^heterogeneous elements to the better ingre- 
dients which were blended with them. At last 
the light burst forth anew on all sides. During 
three ages, since its appearance, it has spread, and 
made a progress hitherto unexampled. The il- 
lumination of Athens and of Rome is restored, 
not only throughout Europe, but at Philadelphia 
and Calcutta. Rome, and Athens, which our 
knowledge and our arts would astonish, would 
admire also the philanthropy of Europe, which 
glories in the feelings of humanity, and allows 
not slavery to exist on its soil. Such are the ef- 
fects which have resulted from the dismal inun- 
dation of the barbarians in the fourth century; 
and in this manner does time at last vindicate the 
ways of Providence, whose power during the 
course of one or even of several generations ap- 
pears sometimes entirely to have remitted its ac- 
tion. It behoved rne to make choice of this ex- 
ample, because the apparent downfal of human 
nature, during the long interval of barbarity in 
the middle ages, is generally the favourite theme 
on which the adversaries of Perfectibility descant 
in recommendation of their own doctrine. 

Should we examine too with minuteness the 
progress of civilization among those barbarians^ 



Reformation of Luther* 23 

the progenitors of the people which have now 
attained the greatest height of improvement, 
what should we first perceive ? Force, the only 
law: Every individual, every lord of a castle at 
war with all his neighbours: And those personal 
contests inundating the earth with blood, carrying 
desolation into every corner, and regulated by no 
law but the ferocity of the conqueror. How dis- 
astrous a picture for example do the Gauls present 
in that period of anarchy ! By degrees the valour 
or the fortune of certain chiefs unites extensive 
provinces under their dominion ; into which they 
introduce a species of order and discipline, and in 
which the inhabitants are saved from an universal 
and unintermitted warfare. At last those provinces 
themselves become united under a single govern- 
ment: Millions of men who previously were_ 
divided into a multitude of hordes, cutting one 
another's throats, are thenceforwardfellow-citizens, 
brethren, subject to the same laws, restrained and 
regulated by the same discipline. Where murder 
and rapine swayed uncontrouled, security, order, 
and harmony are beheld ; Gaul is now an homo- 
geneous whole ; and over its entire surface reigns 
that perpetual peace which is painted in our imagi- 
nation, and in the reality of which it is so difficult 
to create belief. Shall our civil wars be objected? 
Those indeed are merely accidents; violent situa- 
tions of affairs, and contrary to the order of 



24 Spirit and Influence of the 

nature. This is no longer the permanent, the 
constitutional state, if we may adopt that ex- 
pression, of a whole country. The medicative 
power of the body itself speedily provides a re- 
medy; and experience proves that the remedies 
become every day more easy to obtain. Let us 
conclude then, notwithstanding the morose dis.- 
position which makes so many men admirers of 
the past, solely for the pleasure of depreciating 
the present, that our age is greatly before that 
of the Goths and the Vandals; and seeing human 
nature has advanced the whole space between 
them, this consolatory prospect cannot be taken 
from us, that our posterity will proceed onwards to 
a still better and happier situation. 

I solicit the indulgence of my judges for this ef- 
. fusion which has issued almost involuntarily from 
my mind. I know that one may hazard the lan- 
guage of speculation before an assembly of wise 
men, whose object it is to carry into the study 
of history the consolatory views of philosophy. 
How indeed was it possible to refrain from turning 
ones eyes towards an amelioration in human affairs, 
while contemplating the consequences of those 
bloody revolutions of which the Reformation 
effected by Luther presents so memorable an 
example? At each of those great convulsions 
among the nations, ought we not to accuse divine 
Providence of a tyrannical absurdity, if the result 



Reformation of Luther. 25 . 

of all those evils were only to fall back into a 
worse condition than that out of which we had 
arisen? — But no; after those deplorable com mo-^ 
tions, in which so many individuals are sacrificed, 
it is not uncommon to see a better order of things 
arise, to behold the race itself advance more 
freely toward the great end which is pointed out 
to it by its intellectual nature, and obtain a new 
expansion of its improvement by every new / 
explosion of its powers. * 

* There are few persons, it is presumable, who will object to 
this moderate and rational view of the tendency in the condition 
of the human species toward improvement. Yet this is no 
other than the doctrine of Perfectibility to which such horrible 
consequences have been ascribed. That impulse which every 
individual experiences to better his condition, and which is the 
inexhaustible source of improvement in the individual, is an 
equally necessary and inexhaustible source of improvement to 
the species. Those circumstances in the constitution of this 
world, which have been so largely descanted upon, which seem 
opposed to the establishment of perfect happiness or virtue on 
the earth, prove nothing. It will not be denied that a much 
more perfect state of happiness and virtue, than any which at 
present exists upon the earth, is perfectly consistent with the 
constitution of this world. And to advance as near as possible 
to what of perfection this constitution permits is all that the 
advocates of Perfectibility contend for. Toward this state of 
perfection, they think there is a natural and fixed tendency in 
human nature, and the constitution of things amid which 
human nature is placed j a tendency which can only be counter- 
acted by temporary, and accidental causes, and which will 
foially triumph over them y and that the idea of this perfection 



*%6 Spirit and Influence of the 

In conformity with these conclusions we will 
consider the gradual improvement of the human 
species as consisting of an uninterrupted series of 

is the grand model to which the contemplator and the director 
of human affairs should turn their attention in delineating or ex- 
ecuting plans for the administration of any portion of those 
affairs. The meaning, unquestionably, is, to turn their attention 
to it with wisdom and discretion j and the doctrine is not an- 
swerable for, the erroneous applications which may be made 
of it. 

It may be worthwhile to compare, on this important subject, 
the expressions of Villers, with those of a very cautious and 
guarded philosopher of our own country : 

(t Before closing this disquisition, it may be proper for me to 
attempt to obviate a little more fuliy than I have done, an ob* 
jection which has been frequently drawn from the past experi- 
ence of mankind, against that supposition of their progressive 
improvement, on which all the foregoing reasonings proceed. 
How mournful are the vicissitudes which history exhibits to us, 
in the course of human affairs j and how little foundation do 
they afford to our sanguine prospects concerning futurity ! If, 
in those parts of the earth which were formerly inhabited by 
barbarians, we now see the most splendid exertions of genius, 
and the happiest forms of civil policy, we behold others which, 
in ancient times, were the seats of science, of civilisation, 
and of liberty, at present immersed in superstition, and laid 
waste by despotism. After a short period of civil, of military, 
and of literary glory, the prospect has changed at once : the 
career of degeneracy has begun, and has proceeded till it could 
advance no farther ; or some unforeseen calamity has occurred, 
which has obliterated, for a time, all memory of former im- 
provements, and has condemned mankind to re-trace, step by 
step, the same path by which their forefathers had risen to 



Reformation of Luther. 27 

reformations; partly silent and gentle, the slow 
produce of ages, of tfee personal conviction of 
the powerful orders, and of opinion, which in 

greatness. In a word ; on such a retrospective view of human 
affairs, man appears to be the mere sport of fortune and of ac- 
cident j or rather, he appears to be doomed, by the condition 
of his nature,. to run alternately the career of improvement and 
of degeneracy j and to realise the beautiful but melancholy 
fable of Sisyphus, by an eternal renovation of hope and ©f 
disappointment. 

In opposition to these discouraging views of the state and 
prospects of man j it may be remarked in general, that in the 
course of these latter ages, a variety of events have happened 
in the history of the world, which render the condition of the 
human race essentially different from what it ever was among 
the nations of antiquity ; and which, of consequence, render 
all our reasonings concerning their future fortunes, in so far as 
they are founded merely on their past experience, unphiloso- 
phical and inconclusive. The alterations which have taken 
place in the art of war, in consequence of the invention of fire- 
arms, and of the modern science of fortification, have given 
to civilised nations a security against the irruptions of barbarians, 
which they never before possessed. The more extended, and 
the more constant intercourse, which the improvements in com- 
merce and in the art of navigation have opened, amOftg the 
distant quarters of the globe, cannot fail to operate in under- 
mining local and national prejudices, and in imparting to the 
whole species the intellectual acquisitions of each particular 
community. The accumulated experience of ages has already 
taught the rulers of mankind, that the most fruitful and the 
most permanent sources of revenue, are to be derived, not from 
conquered and tributary provinces, but from the internal pros- 
perity and wealth of their own subjects:— and the same expe- 



28 Spirit and Influence of the 

time brings errors to the ground ; and partly tu- 
multuous, and violent, the sudden effect of a 
beam of light which strikes all eyes, of patience 

rience now begins to teach nations, that the increase of their. 
own wealth, so far from depending on the poverty and depres- 
sion of their neighbours, is intimately connected with their 
industry and opulence ; and consequently, that those commer- 
cial jealousies, which have hitherto been so fertile a source of 
animosity among different states, are founded entirely on igno- 
rance and prejudice. Among all the circumstances, however, 
which distinguish the present state of mankind from that of 
antient nations, the invention of printing is by far the most 
important 5 and, indeed, this single event, independently of 
every other, is sufficient to change the whole course of human 
affairs. 

The influence which printing is likely to have on the future 
history of the world, has not, I think, been hitherto examined, 
by philosophers, with the attention which the importance of the 
subject deserves. One reason for this may, probably, have 
been, that, as the invention has never been made but once, it 
has been considered rather as the effect of a fortunate accident, 
than as the result of those general causes on which the progress 
of society seems to depend. But it may be reasonably questi- 
oned, how far this idea be just. For, although it should be 
allowed, that the invention of printing was accidental, with 
respect to the' individual who made it, it may, with truth, be 
considered as the natural result of a state of the world, when a 
number of great and contiguous nations %ire all engaged in the 
study, of literature, in the pursuit of science, and in the prac- 
tice of the arts : insomuch, that I do not think it extravagant to 
affirm, that, if this invention, had not been made by the parti- 
cular person to whom it is ascribed, the same art, or some 
analogous art, answering a similar purpose., would have infallibly 



Reformation of Luther. <2Q 

exhausted under long oppression, of the desire 
inflamed to excess of restoring the balance in 
some part of the political or religious system. 

been invented by some other person, and at no very distant 
period. The art of printing, therefore, is intitled to be consi- 
dered as a step in the natural history of man, no less than the 
art of writing 5 and they who are sceptical about the future pro- 
gress of the race, merely in consequence of its past history, 
reason as unphilosophically, as the member of a savage tribe, 
who, deriving his own acquaintance with former times from 
oral tradition only, should affect to call in question the efficacy 
of written records, in accelerating the progress of knowledge 
and of civilisation. 

What will be the particular effects of this invention, (which 
has been, hitherto, much checked in its operation, by the re- 
straints on the liberty of the press in the greater part of Europe,) 
it is beyond the reach of human sagacity to conjecture} but, in 
general, we may venture to predict with confidence, that, in 
every country, it will gradually operate to widen the circle of 
science and civilisation $ to distribute more equally, among all 
the members of the community, the advantages of the political 
union ; and to enlarge the basis of equitable governments, by 
increasing the number of those who understand their value, 
and are interested to defend them. The science of legislation, 
too, with all the other branches of knowledge which are con- 
nected with human improvement, may be expected to advance 
with rapidity} and, in proportion as the opinions and institutions 
of men approach to truth and to justice, they will be secured 
against those revolutions to which human affairs have always 
been hitherto subject. Opinionum enim commenta delet die$ s 
tmturcejudicia confirmat. 

These views with respect to the probable improvement of the 
world, are so conducive to the comfort of those who entertain 



30 Spirit and Iriftuence of the 

^Those are the epochs, the mile-stones, as it were^ 
v of the human race in its journey through time. 
History enumerates them with care, observes 

them, that even, although they were founded in delusion, a 
wise man would be disposed to cherish them. What should 
have induced some respectable writers to controvert them, with 
so great an asperity of expression, it is not easy to conjecture ; 
for whatever may be thought of their truth, their practical 
tendency is surely favourable to human happiness j nor can that 
temper of mind, which disposes a man to give them a welcome 
reception, be candidly suspected of designs hostile to the inte- 
rests of humanity. One thing is certain, that the greatest of 
all obstacles to the improvement of the world, is that prevailing 
belief of its improbability, which damps the exertions of so 
many individuals j and that, in proportion as the contrary opi- 
nion becomes general, it realises the event which it leads us to 
anticipate. Surely, if any thing can have a tendency to call 
forth in the public service the exertions of individuals, it must 
be an idea of the magnitude of that work in which they are 
conspiring, and a belief of the permanence of those benefits, 
which they confer on mankind by every attempt to inform and 
to enlighten them. As in antient Rome, therefore, it was 
regarded as the mark of a good citizen, never to despair of the 
fortunes of the republic ; — so the good citizen of the world* 
whatever may be the political aspect of his own times, will 
never despair of the fortunes of the human race : but will act 
upon the conviction, that prejudice, slavery, and corruption, 
must gradually give way to truth, liberty, and virtue ; and that, 
in the moral world, as well as in the material, the farther our 
observations extend, and the longer they are continued, the 
more we shall perceive of order and of benevolent design in 
the universe. 

Nor is this change in the condition of Man, in consequence 



Reformation of Luther. 3 i 

their effects, and forms by them the divisions of 
her labour. 

Men of temperate natures, whom a mild phi- 

of the progress of reason » by any means contrary to the general 
analogy of his natural history. In the infancy of the individual, 
his existence is preserved by instincts, which disappear after- 
wards, when they are no longer necessary, in the savage state 
of our species, there are instincts which seem to form a part of 
the human constitution j and of which no traces remain in those 
periods of society in which their use is superseded by a more 
enlarged experience. Why then should we deny the probability 
of something similar to this, in the history of mankind consi- 
dered in their political capacity ? I have already had occasion to 
observe, that the governments which the world has hitherto 
seen, have seldom or never taken their rise from deep-laid 
schemes of human policy. In every state of society which has 
yet existed, the multitude has, in general, acted from the im- 
mediate impulse of passion, or from the pressure of their 
wants and necessities j and, therefore, what we commonly call 
the political order, is, at least in a great measure, the result of 
the passions and wants of man, combined with the circum- 
stances of his situation j or, in other words, it is chiefly the 
result of the wisdom of nature. So beautifully, indeed, do 
these passions and circumstances act in subserviency to her de- 
signs, and so invariably have they been found, in the history of 
past ages, to conduct him in time to certain beneficial arrange- 
ments, that we can hardly bring ourselves to believe, that the 
end was not foreseen by those who were engaged in the pursuit. 
Even in those rude periods of society, when, like the lower 
animals, he follows blindly his instinctive principles of action, 
he is led by an invisible hand, and contributes his share to the 
execution of a plan, of the nature and advantages of which he 
has no conception, The operations of the bee, when it begins. 



32 Spirit and Influence of the 

lanthropy warms without enthusiasm, who ar£ 
more shocked by the appearance of present evils, 
than animated by the hope of future benefits, 

for the first time, to form its cell, conveys to us a striking 
image of the efforts of unenlightened Man, in conducting the 
operations of an infant government." Stuart's Elements of the 
Philosophy of the Human Mind. Ch. IV. sec. 8. 

He recurs to the same doctrine in the following beautiful ex- 
pressions, in closing his account of the imagination : 

" The common bias of the mind undoubtedly is, (such is 
the benevolent appointment of Providence,) to think favourably 
of the future; to overvalue the chances of possible good, and 
to under-rate the risks of possible evil ; and in the case of some 
fortunate individuals, this disposition remains after a thousand 
disappointments. To what this bias of our nature is owing, it 
is not material for us to inquire : the fact is certain, and it is an 
important one to our happiness. It supports us under the real 
distresses of life, and cheers and animates all our labours : and 
although it is sometimes apt to produce, in a weak and indolent 
mind, those deceitful suggestions of ambition and vanity, 
which lead us to sacrifice the duties and the comforts of the 
present moment, to romantic hopes and expectations ; yet it 
must be acknowledged, when connected with habits of activity, 
and regulated by a solid judgment, to have a favourable effect on 
the character, by inspiring that ardour and enthusiasm which 
both prompt to great enterprises, and are necessary to ensure 
their success. When such a temper is united (as it commonly 
is) with pleasing notions, concerning the order of the universe,- 
and in particular concerning the condition and the prospects of 
man, it places our happiness, in a great measure, beyond the 
power of fortune. While it adds a double relish to every enjoy- 
ment, it blunts the edge of all our sufferings -, and even when 
human life presents to us no object on which our hopes can rest, 



Reformation of Luther. 33 

those peaceful minds, whom impetuous movements 
and the furies of insurrection alarm ; such men, I 
'say, who are the friends of the ameliorations and re- 
forms which time produces without a commotion, 
rightly desire that good would never present itself 
but under a beneficent appearance. Wherever 
they observe the conflagration of passions, arms 
challenged by arms, and thunder answering thun- 
der, they sigh, they lament they protest, equally 
against both parties. Frequently they decide 
against him who gave the first blow to the peace 
which they cherish, notwithstanding that it is 
often he who is really innocent, the victim of op* 
pression, by which he has at last been urged to 
extremity.— May we not rank in this class a great 
number of the enemies of our last revolution, 
a set of virtuous and upright men who shuddered 
at the shock of parties ? In the same manner 
may we explain the estrangement which some 

it invites the imagination beyond the dark and troubled horizon 
which terminates all our earthly prospects, to wander uncon* 
fined in the regions of futurity. A man of benevolence, 
whose mind is enlarged by philosophy, will indulge the same 
agreeable anticipations with respect to society j will view all 
the different improvements in arts, in commerce, and in the 
sciences, as co-operating to promote the union, the happiness^ 
and the virtue of mankind ■> and, amidst the political disorders 
resulting from the prejudices and follies of his own times, will 
look forward with transport to the blessings which are reserved 
for posterity in a more enlightened age." lb. Ch. VII, sec. 6, 

D 



34 Spirit and Influence of the 

distinguished characters of the 1 6th century shewed, 
not to the doctrine, but to the events of the Re- 
formation. Erasmus entitled it the Lutheran 
Tragedy ; and ki fact it was because the piece an- 
nounced itself as a tragical one, that this dis- 
cerning and cautious man, whose favourite motto 
was, ctium cum dignitate, refused to become an 
actor in it. But to expect that good should be 
wrought out of good only, is to make of human na- 
ture a romance, to turn history into a pastoral, 
and the universe into an Arcadia. This, unfor- 
tunately, is not the order of events. Nature amid 
the bounties which she sheds in profusion on the 
earth, disfigures it by hurricanes, by inundations, 
by subterraneous fires, the images of the terrible 
disasters which sometimes appear in our social 
confederacies, and which are owing, frequently 
to the faults of our predecessors, sometimes to 
our own. It belongs to the man, fitted to live 
in the age in which he is cast, to resign himself 
to its course, to observe in it the operation of the 
comprehensive laws which direct the great whole ; 
laws which we misunderstand only when we dare 
to judge of their action from too partial and 
limited a view.^ 

* This distinction between the two great classes of the- 
friends of amelioration and advancement in human affairs is 
important, and well explained. It is material to add that the 
natural temper, to which either class yields obedience, leada 



Reformation of Luther. 33 

The amelioration, after which man perpetually 
aspires, both in his political and religious institu- 
te) evil consequences. The one runs the risk of degenerating 
into timidity, and of losing important opportunities for benefit- 
ing mankind ; the other is in danger of running into rashness j 
and of incurring great evils by the unseasonable pursuit of ad- 
vantages. Reason, not natural temper, on either side, is the 
proper guide in this momentous concern. The business of all 
men who wish to benefit their species is to cultivate their reason $ 
not to listen to their passions, or temper, but to acquire a steady 
and perfect habit of consulting their reason solely, in a case in 
which it alone can give proper advice. The behaviour of Eras* 
mus, to which reference is here made, throws so much light 
on this important subject, that it will be useful to peruse some 
passages from a work, in which the conduct of' that celebrated 
man is very finely illustrated, his life by Dr. Jortin. 

" The celebrated diet of Worms was held this year, 1521, 
where Luther, who had as much courage as Alexander and 
Julius Caesar put together, made his appearance, and maintained 
his opinions, in the presence of Charles V, and of other princes. 
After this, his friend the elector of Saxony carried him off se- 
cretly, and conveyed him to the fortress of Wartburg, where 
he remained concealed for some time, being proscribed by the 
emperor, and excommunicated by the pope. Hereupon Eras- 
mus wrote a long letter to his friend Jodocus Jonas, a Lutheran, 
in which he deplores the fate of Luther, and of those who had 
declared themselves his associates j and blames them much for 
want of moderation, as if this had brought their distresses upon 
them. Moderation, doubtless, is a virtue : but so far was the 
opposite party from allowing Luther to be in the right, as to the 
main points, that it was his doctrine which gave the chief of- 
fence to the court of Rome; and he would have gained as little 
upon them by proposing it in the most submissive and softest 

D 2 



36 Spirit and Influence of the 

tions, consists in bringing and retaining them aS 
near as he possibly can to the particular spirit 

manner, as he gained by maintaining it in his rough way. 
Erasmus himself experienced the truth of this; and the monks 
were not induced to change any thing that was reprehensible in 
their notions and in their manners, by his gentler and more 
artful remonstrances, and abhorred his ironies no less than the 
bold invectives of Luther. However, Erasmus may stand ex- 
cused in some measure in the sight of candid and favourable 
judges, because he talked thus, partly out of timidity, and 
partly out of love and friendship towards him to whom he ad- 
dresseth himself. You will tell me, says- he, my dear Jonas, 
to what purpose these complaints, especially when it is too late ? 
Why, in the first place, that (although things have been carried 
almost to extremities) one may still try, whether some method 
can be found to compose these terrible dissensions. "We have a 
pope, who in his temper is much disposed to clemency j and an 
emperor, who is also mild and placable. Honest Erasmus 
judged very wrong of both these persons. Leo was a vain, a 
voluptuous and debauched man, who had no religion, and no 
compassion for those, who would not submit entirely to his 
pleasure, as he shewed by the haughty manner in which he 
treated Luther, without admitting the least relaxation in any of 
the disputed points. Such is the character which history hath 
bestowed upon him : and as to Charles V, he was a most am- 
bitious and restless prince, who made a conscience of nothing, 
to accomplish any of his projects, as it appears from the bloody 
wars which he waged under religious pretences, and indeed 
from his whole conduct. The Lutherans would have been fools 
and mad, to have trusted themselves and their cause to such a 
pontiff, and to such an emperor. 

" If this cannot be accomplished, continues Erasmus, I would 
pot have you interfere in these affairs any longer. I always 



Reformation of Luther. 37 

which constitutes their essence. The exterior 
forms with which they are clothed, are never so 

loved in you those excellent gifts, which Jesus Christ hath be- 
stowed upon you ; and I beg you would preserve yourself, that 
you may hereafter labour for the cause of the Gospel. The 
more I have loved the genius and the talents of Hutten, the 
more concerned I am to lose him by these troubles ; and what 
a deplorable thing would it be, that Philip Melanchthon, an 
amiable youth of such extraordinary abilities, should be lost to 
the learned world upon the same account ! If the behaviour of 
those, who govern human affairs, shocks us and griefs us, I 
believe we must leave them to the Lord. If they command 
things reasonable, it is just to obey them -, if they require things 
unreasonable, it is an act of piety to suffer it, lest something 
worse ensue. If the present age is not capable of receiving the 
whole gospel of Jesus Christ, yet it is something to preach it in 
part, and as far as we can.— Above all things we should avoid a 
schism, which is of pernicious consequence to all good men. 
There is a certain pious craft, and an innocent time-serving, 
which however we must so use, as not to betray the cause of 
religion, &c. 

"Such is the gospel which Erasmus preached up to the Lu- 
therans, imagining that they and their cause would go to ruin, 
and that a worse condition of things would ensue. But, if they 
had complied with his proposal, we should have been at this 
day involved in all the darkness, which had overspread the 
Christian world in the fifteenth century, and for many ages be- 
fore it. So far would the popes and the ecclesiastics have been 
from abandoning their beloved interests, founded upon igno^ 
ranee and superstition, that a bloody inquisition would have 
been established, not only in Italy and Spain, but in all Christian 
countries, which would have smothered and extinguished for 
ever those lights which then began to sparkle. Lutheranism 4 



38 Spirit and Influence of the 

exactly adapted to their spirit, as to permit its 
entire operation and accomplishment. It happens 

gaining more strength and stability than Erasmus expected, 
prevented the tyranny of an inquisition in Germany, and the 
Reformation of Calvin secured the liberty of other countries. 
If all Germany had yielded and submitted to Leo and to Charles, 
in compliance with the timorous counsels of Erasmus, he him- 
self would undoubtedly have been one of the first sufferers ; and 
the court of Rome, no longer apprehensive lest he should join 
himself to the heretics, would have offered him up a sacrifice 
of a sweet smelling savour to the monks, who did a thousand 
times more service to that court man a thousand such scholars 
as Erasmus." 

"We have, in this year, 1521, a remarkable letter of Eras- 
mus, addressed to his friend Pace, dean of St. Paul's. I see 
now, says Erasmus, that the Germans (the German Lutherans) 
are resolved, at all adventures, to engage me in the aiFair of 
Luther, whether I will or not. In this they have acted foolishly, 
and have taken the surest method to alienate me from them and 
their party. Wherein could I have assisted Luther, if I had 
declared myself for him, and shared the danger along with him? 
Only thus far, that, instead of one man, two would have pe- 
rished. I cannot conceive what he means by writing with such 
a spirit : one thing I know too well, that he hath brought a 
great odium upon the lovers of literature. It is true, that he 
hath given us many a wholesome doctrine, and many a good 
counsel] and I wish he had not defeated the effect of them by 
his intolerable faults. But if he had mitten, every thing in the 
most unexceptionable maimer, I had no inclination to die for the 
sake of truth. Every man hath not the courage requisite to make 
a martyr; and I am afraid, thai if I ^cre rut to the trial, I 
should imitate St.. Feier. 



Reformation of Luther. 39 

but too frequently that an embarrassment in the 
wheels of the machine interrupts and disturbs the 

" It was proper to give these extraordinary words at length, 
because though he hath elsewhere dropped some expressions 
amounting nearly to the same thing, yet perhaps he hath no- 
where so frankly opened his mind, and so ingenuously owned 
his timidity. The apprehension of losing his revenues, the re- 
putation which he still enjoyed in the court of Rome, and was 
loth to give up entirely, and possibly the fear of being excom- 
municated and proscribed, and perhaps poisoned or assassinated,, 
might work together upon him, and restrain him from speaking 
freely concerning the controversies then agitated. However, 
to do him justice, he still maintained the truth, though cautiously 
and obliquely. Although he frequently censured Luther, yet 
he heartily wished that he might carry his point, and extort 
from his enemies some Reformation both of doctrines and man- 
ners -j but, as he could not imagine that Luther would succeed, 
he chose to adhere outwardly to the stronger party. I follow, 
says he, the decisions of the pope and the emperor when they 
are right, which is acting religiously; I submit to them when 
they are wrong, Which is acting prudently : and I think that it 
is lawful for good men to behave themselves thus, when there 
is no hope of obtaining any more. 

ft After this, when Erasmus testifies his disapprobation of the 
Lutheran measures, it is needless to seek other reasons for it 
than those which have been here mentioned. 

<c Le Clerc often censures Erasmus for his hike- warm ness, ti- 
midity, and unfairness, in the matter of the Reformation; and I, 
as a translator, have adopted these censures, only softening 
them a little here and there : for I am, in the main, of the same 
opinion with Le Clerc as to this point. As Protestants, we are 
certainly much obliged to Erasmus ; yet we are more obliged 
to the authors of the Reformation, to Luther, Melanchthon, 
Zuinglius, Oecolampadius, Cranmer, Bucer, 8cc* 



40 Spirit and Influence of the 

action of the primary spring. What subjects all 
human institutions to this discordant duplicity is 

" Erasmus shews at large, that whatsoever pains he had taken 
to keep upon good terms with the divines of Lou^aii^ it had 
been impossible to gain their friendship 3 and that some of them 
had cruelly deceived him, particularly Joannes A ten. sis, who 
was one of the most able and considerable persons amongst them. 
Then he makes a transition to Luther, and censures his violent 
proceedings j as if Luther could have brought the Christian 
world to measures of Reformation, in spite of the Romish court, 
without plain-dealing and animated expressions ! He declares his. 
hatred of discord to be such, that he disliked even truth itself, 
if it was seditious. Rut Luther, who was of another humour, 
would have replied, that such was his hatred for falshood and 
oppression of conscience, that he thought it better to suffer 
persecution, if it arose, and to break loose from such a tyranny 
at all adventures, than to stoop down, and live and die under it, 
and hear a thousand lies vented and obtruded under the vene- 
rable name of Christian doctrines. They who are bold and re- 
solute will approve these maxims of Luther, and they who are 
cautious and dispirited will close in with those of Erasmus. It 
must be acknowledged, that in this Luther acted rather more 
like an apostle, or a primitive Christian, than Erasmus. If the 
first Christians had been afraid of raising disturbances, they 
would have chosen to comply with the Sanhedrim, and to live 
at peace with their countrymen, rather than to draw upon them- 
selves so much hatred. Some of the great, says Erasmus, 
meaning the king of Denmark, are of an opinion, to which I 
cannot assent, that the malady is too inveterate to be cured by 
gentle methods, and that the whole body must be violently 
shaken, before it can recover its health. If it be true, I haci 
rather that others should administer this strong physic, than 
myself. Very well : but then, at least,, we ought to respect 



Reformation of Luther. 4j. 

the nature of man itself, which is a compound of 
a mind and a body intimately united, Confined, 

and commend, and not to censure those, who have the courage 
and the constancy to do what Ve dare not practise." 

■ f There was at this time a certain preacher at Constance, who 
consulted Erasmus by Botzem, how the Reformation might best 
be advanced, Erasmus answered, that they who imagined 
themselves to have as great abilities for settling those Christian 
truths which concern all men and all times, as they had for a 
theological compotation, or a little scholastic dispute, were in- 
finitely mistaken. Truth, says he, is efficacious and invincible, 
but it must be dispensed with evangelical prudence. For my- 
self, I so abhor divisions, and so love concord, that I fear, if 
an occasion presented itself, I should sooner give up a part of 
truth, than disturb the public peace. 

" But the mischief is, that a man cannot thus give up truth, 
without running into felshood, and assenting to things which he 
4oth not believe. For a man cannot judge that to be right, 
which his own reason pronounces to be false, only because over- 
bearing persons attack the truth with more vehemence than he 
chooseth to employ in defence of it, and are the majority and 
£he stronger party. Besides, when such enemies to reason and 
£o religion perceive that a man will not have the courage to da- 
fend his opinions at all extremities, which Erasmus confessed to 
]be his own disposition, they never fail to take advantage of him, 
to oppress him, and to run him down, well knowing that no- 
thing is necessary to accomplish their purposes besides stubborn- 
ness, clamour, impudence, and violence. And so spiritual 
tyranny being once erected, would endure for ever, and gain 
strength and stability. Concord and peace are unquestionably 
valuable blessings $ but yet not to be purchased at the expence 
pf truth and liberty, which are infinitely more estimable than 
a sordid tranquillity beneath the yoke of falshood and arbitrary 



A% Spirit and Influence of the 

and as it were entrameled by the organs of the 
body, which are given it for its manifestation, 

dominion. Eeneath this yoke the Christian republic becomes a 
mere faction of poltroons, solicitous about enjoying the present, 
and neglecting every thing that is laudable, under the pretext of 
preserving the peace. Sueh would have been the present state 
of Christianity, if the pacific scheme of Erasmus had been re- 
ceived and pursued. Divisions, it must be owned, do much 
harm j yet they have at least produced this good, that the truth 
of the gospel, and a Christian liberty, which acquiesce th only 
in the decisions of Jesus Christ, are not entirely banished from 
the face of the earth, as they would have been without those 
struggles of our ancestors. They have produced no small ser- 
vice to the memory of Erasmus himself, who, having his works 
condemned by theological cabals, and mangled by inquisitions, 
which struck out the most valuable part of his writings, would 
have been stigmatized and proscribed through all ages, if a 
party had not risen up in Europe, and also amongst his own 
countrymen, which willingly forgives him his weaknesses and 
Lis irresolution, for the sake of his useful labours philological 
and theological ; and hath restored to him a second life, and 
recommended him to the christian world, by an elegant and a 
faithful edition of all his works. 

" But let us hear some more of his advice. This preacher, 
says he, who certainly is a worthy man, will do more sen-ice 
to the Gospel, the honour of which we all have at heart, if 
he takes care to join the prudence of the evangelical serpent to 
the simplicity of the evangelical dove. Let him essay it 5 and 
then let him condemn my counsel, if he finds it not to be 
salutary. 

" Alas ! experience hath taught the Christian world, that this 
same serpentine prudence served to make falshood triumphant. 
It was even easy to foresee it, -since this-wisdom consisted only 



Reformation of Luther* 43 

the intellect cannot freely display its power of 
thought, or produce effects equally etherial with 

in submitting to that faction, which was the most powerful and 
the most obstinate. 

' ' Erasmus entertained some hopes, that his old friend and 
school-fellow, Adrian VI. would do some good, as he testifies 
in this letter: but, says he, if I should be mistaken in this, I 
will not be factious. As to the preacher's last question, are we 
to abandon and give up the whole Gospel? I reply; they may 
be said to abandon the Gospel, who defend it in an improper 
manner. Besides ; with what reserve and slow caution did our 
Lord himself discover his doctrine ? 

ee All this in some sense may be right : but then our Saviour 
never said any thing contrary to the truth; and when the time 
was come for it, he laid down his life in confirmation of it; 
which is more than Erasmus was inclined to do, as he himself 
frankly confesseth. It cannot be called defending the Gospel, 
to refer it to the arbitration of a set of Ecclesiastics, whom all 
the world knew to be either ill-instructed, or ill-disposed, or 
both." 

We shall add a letter from Luther to Erasmus in the year 
1524, which sets in a striking light the different character of 
those two great men. 

He begins in the Apostolical manner 5 " Grace and peace to 
you from the Lord Jesus. 

" I shall not complain of you, says he, for having behaved 
yourself as a man estranged from us, to keep fair with the 
Papists, my enemies. Nor was I much offended, that in your 
printed books, to gain their favour, or to soften their rage, you 
have censured us with too much acrimony. We saw that the 
Lord had not conferred upon you the discernment, the courage, 
and the resolution to join with us, and freely and openly to op- 
pose those monsters j and therefore we dared not to exact from 



44 Spirit and Influence of the 

its nature. This thought, to act, and make it- 
self externally perceptible, must connect itself 

you that which greatly surpasseth your strength and your capa- 
city. We have even borne with your weakness, and honoured 
that portion of the gift of God which is in you." 

Then having bestowed upon him his due praises, as he had 
been the reviver of good literature, by means of which the 
holy Scriptures had been read and examined in the originals, he 
proceeds thus : 

" I never wished that, forsaking or neglecting your own proper 
talents, you should enter into our camp. You might indeed 
have favoured us not a little by your wit, and by your eloquence; 
but forasmuch as you have not that courage which is requisite, 
it is safer for you to serve the Lord in your own way. Only we 
feared lest our adversaries should entice you to write against us, 
and that necessity should then constrain us to oppose you to your 
face. We have withheld some persons amongst us, who were 
disposed and prepared to attack you; and I could have wished 
that the Complaint of Hutten had never been published, and 
still more that your Spongia in answer to it had never come 
forth 3 by which you may see and feel at present, if I mistake 
iiot, how easy it is to say fine things about the duties of mo- 
desty and moderation, and to accuse Luther of wanting them, 
and how difficult and even impossible it is to be really modest 
and moderate, without a particular gift of the Holy Spirit. 
Believe me, or believe me not, Jesus Christ is my witness, that 
I am concerned as well as you, that the resentment and hatred 
of so many eminent persons (of the Lutheran party) hath been 
excited against you. I must suppose that this gives you no 
small uneasiness; for virtue like yours, mere human virtue, 
cannot raise a man above being affected by such trials. To tell 
you freely what I think, there are persons (amongst us) who 
having this weakness also about them, cannot bear, as they 



Reformation of Luther, 45 

With a body, to which it communicates its im- 
pression, and which becomes current in its stead. 

ought, your acrimony and your dissimulation, which you want 
to pass off for prudence and modesty. These men have cause 
to be offended -, and yet would not be offended, if they had 
more greatness of spirit. Although I also am irascible, and 
hare been often provoked so as to use sharpness of style, yet I 
never acted thus, except against hardened and incurable repro- 
bates. I have restrained myself, though you have provoked 
me) and I promised, in letters to my friends, which you have 
seen, that I would continue to do so, unless you should appear 
openly against us. For although you are not in our sentiments, 
and many pious doctrines are condemned by you with irreligion 
or dissimulation, or treated in a sceptical manner, yet I neither 
can nor will ascribe a stubborn per terseness to you. What can 
I do now ? Things are exasperated on both sides ; and I could 
wish, if it were possible, to act the part of a mediator between 
you, that they might cease to attack yon with such animosity, 
and suffer your old age to rest in peace in the Lord ; and thus 
they would act, in my opinion, if they either considered your 
weakness, or the greatness of the controverted cause, which 
hath been long since beyond your talents. They would shew 
their moderation towards you so much the more, since our 
affairs are advanced to such a point, that our cause is in no 
peril, although even Erasmus should attack it with all his 
might j so far are we from fearing, some of his strokes and 
strictures. On the other hand, my dear Erasmus, if you duly 
reflect upon your own imbecility, you will abstain from those 
sharp and spiteful figures of rhetoric ; and if you cannot or will 
not defend our sentiments, you will let them alone, and treat 
of subjects which suit you better. Our friends, even you your- 
self being judge, have some reason of anxiety at being lashed 
by you, because human infirmity thinks of the authority and 



46 Spirit and Influence of the 

Hence, for example, arises the vast importance of 
language in regard to the faculty of thinking; and 
hence is seen the truth, in this sense, of the opi- 
nion, that without language we should be unable 
to combine our ideas. Thus, every institution 
for the service of man, must be provided with a 
body, with' a physical and perceptible form.. The 
spirit of all religions, without doubt, is originally 
the same, as well as that of all governments. 
The one consists in recognising as laws ordained 
by God himself, the laws of morality, and rules 
of duty which are engraven in all human hearts ; 
the other in securing to all the members of the 
community the exercise of their natural rights. 
But what sort of a religion; what sort of a go- 
vernment would that be, which should be confined 
to that idea, which should be nothing but a spirit ? 
It would not be a machine, organised, capable of 
action in man's world; it would not be a human 
institution. To be this, it must have an external 
form, and a visible and material organ. 

Still the spirit, which forms the essence of 
those institutions, unalterable, eternal, remains 
what it was, and similar to itself. It is not so 
with the body, the external form. This is subject 

reputation of Erasmus, and fears it : and indeed there is much 
difference between him and the*rest of the Papists, and he is a 
more formidable adversary than all of them joined together/ 5 

5 



Reformation of Luther, 47 

to the influence of the material world; and of 
human passions. Variable, perishable, it is mo- 
dified at the pleasure of chance ' and of events. 
In proportion as its form changes, as its organs 
wear, become overloaded, or disproportioned, the 
spirit, oppressed and constrained, loses its primitive 
action and tendency. Sometimes smothered under 
a monstrous load, it ceases altogether to manifest 
itself; the phantom has no life, or pliability; it has 
only the heaviness and stiffness of death. Thus 
the spirit of Christianity, so pure, and so sub- 
lime, to which belongs a form alone as pure and 
simple as itself,* was successively extinguished 
during a long course of ages, down even to the 
sixteenth century, by a continual load of dissimilar 
elements, which perverted its action, and rendered 
it by little and little a deformed mass, from which 
issued all the evils which the errors and passions 
of men could engender. Thus does history, 
the depositary of a melancholy experience, enable 

* Fenelon, in his letter on the existence of God, and the 
worship due to him, (Vol. II. Philos. Works) repeats several 
times that the Christian Religion is nothing but the love of God. 
He quotes Tertullian, who declares, in this sense, that the soul 
is naturally Christian; and St. Augustin, according to whom 
the only worship is love, Nee colitur nisi amando. <e This,'" 
according to Fenelon, " is the reign of God within usj it is 
the worship in spirit and in truth ; it is the sole end for which 
God created us." It is manifest that the Holy See could not 
think this mode of Christianity very suitable, Author. 



4$ Spirit and Influence of the 

us to see that political constitutions, contrived fbf 
the preservation of natural rights among men, 
almost always degenerate at last, and end by be- 
coming embarrassed with a mass ruinous to liberty 
and to public safety. On this account, among 
those who reflect upon the condition of nations, 
an opinion has become pretty generally established, 
which is almost always confirmed by the event, 
that sooner or later, a government, democratical 
in the beginning, changes successively into an 
oligarchy, a monarchy, and ends by degenerating 
into a despotism.* 

And such is the source whence arises, at certain 
epochs, the necessity, generally felt by all upright 
and disinterested minds, of reformations in the 
great Establishments of human beings. The exte- 
rior form is in general but too opposite to the 
spirit. What is the situation, when all harmony 
between them being lost, the form only binds, 
oppresses, and paralyses the spirit. At last it must 
of necessity burst forth, of necessity escape from 
a body which no longer affords it the organs ne- 

* This talk about the body and spirit of human institutions 
can only be regarded as an account of a vague and faint analog)'. 
There is no meaning in it. It explains nothing. But the 
author merits our excuse for a momentary departure into the 
regions of the unmeaning, by his sudden return, and the steadi- 
ness with which he avoids a similar departure through all the 
remainder of his course. 

7 



Reformation oj Luther. 4Q 

cessary for its developement. Men, who all more 
or less find in themselves the distinct idea, the 
clear type of that spirit, are provoked at the 
proud and pernicious Colussus, break it to pieces 
in their indignation; and strive to collect the sa- 
cred flame which was concealed within it. Flitting 
and feeble as it is, they are unable to catch it. 
They are compelled to inclose it anew in a vase 
which their own hands have fashioned^ and to 
conjoin it to a new perceptible form. Thus, after 
having destroyed the old edifice of the Romish 
communion, the Christians who separated from it 
required the confession of Augsburg, and other 
similar codes. After the destruction of the mo- 
narchy in France, it was necessary to fix the spirit 
of the government, and of the natural rights of 
man, in the positive forms of a new constitution. 
But in judging of those Reformations how ne- 
cessary is it to consider the general spirit of the 
imes, and of the country in which they take 
place? They receive from those two circum- 
stances, as well as from the personal character of 
their author, and that of his principal coadjutors, 
from the purposes and local objects of those ac- 
tors, their modification and distinctive colour. 
Moses, going out of Egypt at the head of a band 
of mutinous, superstitious; and sensual slaves, 
of whom it behoved him to form men obedient 
to authority, soldiers capable of every enterprise, 

E 



50 Spirit and Influence of the 

and resolved on hostilities against all nations who 
possessed or should attempt to possess the territory 
on which he wished to settle them ; Moses, in 
those circumstances modelled the reform of his 
people as it was necessary to model it for the ac- 
complishment of his purposes. Mahomet, re- 
forming a free and haughty nation, sensual to 
excess, but capable of elevation and virtue^ was 
able to stamp on it a great character, and reduced 
to very simple terms the external form of the 
pure deism which he preached to it. Both of 
them confounded the religious constitution, which 
ought to belong to all men, with the political 
constitution which ought to belong only to one 
nation ; they formed an union of the church and 
state, and by that means rendered their religion 
purely local. As to Jesus, conformably to his 
Divine origin, he separated the concerns of the 
state from those of religion, whose kingdom, he 
proclaimed, was not of this world. Amid the 
Jewish nation, which had received from Moses, 
during the forty years in the desert, a system of 
government, conformable to the necessities of its 
first settlement in Palestine, but which had ar- 
rived at the highest pitch of need for a reform, 
Jesus undertook that of the whole human race, 
by rejecting the forms which belonged only to a 
local spirit, and appealing to the universal spirit 
of religion, which is the same among all man- 



Reformation of Luther. 5 1 

kind. The work of his Reformation accordingly, 
from the spirit, truly divine, that is eminently be- 
neficent, which formed its essence, was naturally 
embraced by all upright men, whose hearts were 
yet simple, and uncorrupted by the constraint of 
local forms. The divine Reformation accom- 
plished by Jesus is then essentially, and in con- 
tradistinction to the two others, cosmopolite, or 
Catholic* according to the true etymology of 
that term. It is not impossible that the form 
which he gave it was too simple, and that when 
the religious society formed in his name extended 
over the globe, it became expedient to add to 
that form.-j- Hence also the discretionary power 
which the legislator, in this respect, was able to 
confer upon the future church. , But the right of 
adapting the form was not a right to render it 
totally distorted and monstrous, and contrary to 
the very spirit of which it ought to form the or- 
gan. The Spirit of Christ was no longer discern- 
ible in the Christian church of the west in the 
fifteenth century. The subordination of the 

* That is universal, belonging to the whole world, to the 
whole human race. 

f This is an idea derived from the feeble analogy, noticed 
above j and which is equally erroneous in philosophy, and in- 
consistent with just ideas of the Divine origin of Christianity. 
Its weakness and futility will be easily seen from the considera- 
tions adduced in the following note. 

E 2 



52 Spirit and Influence of the 

church to the state in regard to human and 
terrestrial things; their separate provinces, of the 
things belonging to this life, and the things be- 
longing to heaven : this primitive distinction had 
been violently obliterated ; the irreconcileable spirit 
of certain fantastic institutions had crept into the 
disjointed scheme of modern Christianity: all was 
confounded and changed ; a reformation, a recall 
of the primitive spirit, a simplification of the 
external form was become indispensable. This 
Reformation was accomplished in the sixteenth 
century over a part of the west; and it has been 
distinguished by the name of Luther, its chief, 
and courageous promoter. 

Let us remark yet farther that the external 
form of religious institutions being that portion of 
them which corresponds immediately with the 
senses of man, and which thence unites itself 
with his passions; that the spirit, on the other 
hand, which animates those institutions, being 
that which corresponds directly with his intellec- 
tual part, it follows from this, in the first place, 
that the more any community is formed of igno- 
rant and sensual men, men sunk in matter, the 
more occasion it will have for outward services, 
for regulations purely ceremonial in its worship; 
and secondly, that the more any society of men 
is enlightened, the more cultivated their intel- 
lectual powers in preference to their senses, and 



Reformation of Luther. . 53 

the purer the spirit has remained of their other 
institutions, the less will they endure the form of 
their worship to be clogged, and the more eager 
will they shew themselves for a reform in this 
particular.* 

* This is a vulgar prejudice,, which is transmitted from 
mouth to mouth, in defiance of the most obvious considera- 
tions ; and which this author fancies he has confirmed by a par- 
ticular theory. We find this opinion admirably exposed by a 
very profound contemplator of the history of religion, Dr. 
Hardy, the late revered professor of ecclesiastical history in the 
university of Edinburgh, in a sermon entitled " The Progress 
of the Christian Religion," preached before the society in Scot- 
land for propagating Christian knowledge. 

" The mode of corruption which Christianity experienced, 
during its period of decline in the fourth and fifth centuries, 
consisted partly in an extension of the ritual, which transformed 
the religion in its obvious characters from the discipline of the 
heart, to a pitiful exhibition of gestures, forms, and pageantry; 
and partly in the introduction of dark theories imported from 
the academies of the Egyptian sophists, and mixed with the 
doctrine of the gospel, as alloy and dross, debasing the gold of 
the sanctuary. By the extended ritual and the mysticism to- 
gether, the beauty and authority of religion as a practical rule 
was lost, the actual redemption from vice, and the improvement 
of men individually in piety and holiness, for which the Lord 
of the Christians had laboured and bled, were in effect set 
aside, and supplanted by new contrivances which were adopted 
as substitutes for eternal virtue. From all this it followed, that 
to tender to a new nation the religion as now altered in sub- 
stance, was to offer something else than that which the experi- 
ence of three centuries had proved to be calculated for success \ 
it was to offer something, which having no foundation in hu- 
5 



54 Spirit and bifluence of the 

The passionate attachment to what is body and 
mere form in religion, an attachment which leads 

man nature, no support from right reason, no accommodation 
to the general exigencies of the human race, could not succeed - t 
of course it did not succeed; men would not exchange for it 
the opinions and rites of their fathers, and their reluctance is in 
no degree surprising. 

" The present argument places us on strong ground to meet a 
prejudice by which many speculative and sagacious men have 
been misled. It is, That superstition is necessary in human 
life : That simple and rational religion cannot attract and fix the 
bulk of mankind: That either pageantry or mysticism, or both, 
must be employed to keep religion afloat : and, That the people 
must in some degree be deceived for their good. 

" If these maxims were well founded, they would present a 
more humiliating view of the nature of man than any other 
principles in the philosophy of our species,_ for they imply that 
prejudice and folly are actually to be depended on as the guides 
of human life, and not truth and reason. 

" Now, it is to be observed, that the planof Jesus Christ for 
gaining and keeping the people, proceeded on principles directly 
opposite to these. His doctrine in the simple majesty of truth, 
was without any addition or fictitious embellishment revealed 
unto babes j it was unfolded by degrees indeed, as they w r ere 
able to bear it j but in no case was 1 it contaminated by the 
smallest particle of superstition, folly, or deception. The en- 
tire fairness of the gospel dispensation, as one doctrine given 
alike to the wise and the simple, was its character, announced 
in prophecy, in opposition to the double doctrine of the philo- 
sophic schools ; and to this character Jesus appealed : Go and 
shew John, said he, the things which ye see and hear; — the 
blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, 
and to the poor the gospel is preached, 



Reformation of Luther, 55 

to an ignorance of its spirit, and transfers to the 
accessaries, to the externals of devotion that ve- 



ie We have now seen, that the additions of superstition and 
mystery which were made to the Christian doctrine in the fourth 
and fifth centuries, instead of rendering it more fit to attract 
the affections of mankind, as the priests vainly and ignorantly 
imagined, arrested its progress, affected the body of the church 
as with a mortal palsy, and left mankind to wonder as much at 
its imbecility after that period, as they had admired its strength 
before it was thus diseased. 

" The removal of the prejudice now under discussion is a 
matter of consequence to mankind. I mean therefore farther to 
expose it by stating, that in various ages and countries the men 
who have endeavoured to simplify religion, and to throw off 
superstition, have been supported by the multitude, while there 
is no instance in which the people have freely consented to ex- 
change a simple faith for a complicated and superstitious ritual. 
It is only by gradual steps that superstition has ever gained 
ground j it is an unnatural state of the human mind : men have 
been cheated into superstition, . So far from being cherished by 
the people for its own sake, they have on every opportunity 
manifested the eagerness of impatience to throw it ofr$ and un- 
less when held back by the force of the civil arm, they have 
flocked around every reformer who would venture to pronounce 
that their superstition was all folly, and who would treat them 
as reasonable creatures, by uttering a few plain truths, of which 
their own understandings and consciences could form a judg- 
ment. 

" When Zoroaster undertook to reform the religion of Persia, 
and, in opposition to the leaders of the Magi, restored to the 
popular faith the doctrine of the Eternal One, the source of 
existence and of glory, the superior of the angel of good and 
the angel of evil, the joint ministers of Providence : when he 
2 



56 Spirit and Influence of the 

neration which belongs only to the Divinity, this 
perversion so common among rude and sensual 

restricted the worship of his followers to the good beings only, 
and taught that the dead should be judged in equity, instead of 
being staked in the lottery of fate according to the predominance 
of the good or the evil being; he had nothing to support him 
but the superiority of his system in its plainer accommodation 
to the unsophisticated dictates of the mind; yet he was suc- 
cessful, and the effects of his reformation are not to this day 
wholly lost in Persia. 

" When Confucius, in whose family the patriarchal traditions 
had fortunately been preserved in considerable purity, perceived 
with sorrow the degeneracy of China, he spoke to his country- 
men as a philosopher and a reformer; he claimed no divine 
commission; he declared that his doctrine was not his own, but 
that of the ancients, handed down by tradition: he was listened 
to with avidity wherever he went; whole provinces declared 
their conversion; aud his system, which consisted in the simple 
worship of the God of heaven, and the practice of moral vk r 
tue, became predominant for ages in the empire. 

e f Let us attend to the facts in the Christian history which na- 
turally bear respect to the same argument. During the long 
period in which superstition had fixed its throne on the ruins of 
Christianity before the Reformation, the people felt the weight 
of their oppression; they gioaned under it, though they durst 
sot complain; they turned a wishful eye on every side, looking 
for deliverance. Eagerly did they listen to every voice which 
ventured to speak of reason and spiritual liberty, and were ready 
to throw down their burdens and to obey the call which ac- 
corded with the genuine tones pf nature. The Waldenses in 
Italy and Spain, the Albigen&es in France, the followers of 
Huss in Germany, apfl of Wickliffe in England, all of whom 
aimed at the rejection of superstition, and the restoration of the 



Reformation of Luther. 5J 

men, is the origin of superstition : A pernicious, 
and fatal principle, which placing tlje torch of 

truth in simplicity, were on popular ground ; they possessed the. 
respect and received the blessings of $m people m the ages and 
countries in which they appeared) they failed merely because 
they were borne down by force, and massacred by the troops 
which the interested patrons of superstition armed against them. 
The truth had foul play, otherwise it would have prevailed. 
The Christian people had been at first cheated into superstition, 
and they were held in it only by fraud and by force. 

" The Reformation, for which the people had groaned for ages, 
was at last brought forward with success in Germany and in 
Switzerland. The cause was popular beyond precedent ; from 
province to province, and from kingdom to kingdom, it spread 
its influence like the sun beams of morning after a long night 
of gloom. From the dreams of delusion and terror, the 
Christian man awoke, he gave thanks unto God who had said, 
Let there be light. 

" The Reformation, which, spurning superstition, reverted to 
the simplicity of the gospel in faith and worship, was for that 
very reason gladly embraced by the people; mankind naturally 
love the plain truth, and in their hearts despise the mystical 
chicane, or the ceremonial evolutions by which they are en- 
slaved. The Reformers were revered jas £he friends of the hu- 
man race. Their success was great; and if the cause had been 
left to the fair decision of .mankind individually, and to the 
effect of free discussion, all Europe would have regenerated its 
creed and its worship in the course of a (&\v years; but there 
were various interests necessarily confederated and arrayed 
against it. The Pharisees, v the Sadducees, and the Herodians 
of the age, with the chief priests and scribes, these trusty bat- 
talions which compose the standing army of spkitpal usurpation, 
resisted its progress from .obvious .motives. It was force alone 



58 Spirit and Influence of the 

enthusiasm in the midst of the senses and pas- 
sions, may give occasion to the greatest enormi- 
ties, and the most hideous cruelty. 

exerted or menaced against the people which checked their 
growing inclination, prevented the general success, and re- 
stricted the Reformation to a few countries of Europe. 

" From the whole deduction which has now been made, it 
appears, that superstition is useless j that truth and reason are 
alone to be depended on in giving a regular and safe determi- 
nation to human actions ; and that the idea of managing man- 
kind by means of prejudices and by arts of deception is false 
philosophy, as unwise as it is immoral. 

if That superstition when admitted in any extent within the 
Christian church, must necessarily produce the consequence of 
arresting the progress of the gospel, admits of being proved a 
priori, from the genius of the doctrine of the New Testament, 
without the induction which ecclesiastical history affords 1 . 

<c The plain and open spirit of the Christian system, the appli- 
cation to the natural impressions and to the good sense of man- 
kind, which was invariably made by our Lord and his apostles, 
were essential circumstances (as has been already shewn) of 
the universal character attributed to the religion in its original 
fabric. Besides the considerations which shew the impossibility 
of rendering any mode of superstition universal, it is remark- 
able that precautions were taken in the very first arrangements 
of the Christian system, to impede its progress under the con- 
tingent circumstance of its corruption, and to prevent the visi- 
ble church from going beyond the bounds of the real church, 
which is according to simplicity and truth. The cares of our 
Lord to secure this object, account for a striking circumstance 
in his history, a shyness to admit among his followers many 
who offered to share his fortunes. It was because they only 
wished to share his fortunes in the expected dominion, and not 



Reformation of Luther, 59 

The opposite tendency, that by which a man, 
obeying the impulse of his spiritual principle, 

to follow film in his humility and contempt of the world, that 
he declined their attendance until they should come to him upon 
his own terms. The conduct of Providence towards the Jewish 
nation, in various parts of the New Testament history, mani- 
fests an unremitted attention to the same principle; that the 
cause should be preserved pure, at least in its progress; and 
that it should mot be tendered to the Gentiles mixed with any 
portion of Jewish prejudice or of useless ceremonies. 

" The care of Providence has been exerted over the Christian 
church in all ages to the same purpose. Men may by degrees 
corrupt Christianity where it is, but they shall not propagate it 
in this state : they shall not spread error over the earth in the 
name of Christ : they shall not give to the Gentiles an institute 
of pageantry and mysticism, calling it Christianity ; they may 
offer it if they will, but Providence in its general conduct shews 
that the Gentiles will not accept it." 

It is remarkable that a person so well acquainted with the 
history of Christianity as M. Villers, should not have reflected 
that it was among the rude and unpolished, not the refined and 
learned part of the Roman people, that the Christian religion, 
when preached by the apostles, in its native, and perfect sim- 
plicity, made its principal progress. And the fact is remarkable 
that while it was preserved in this simplicity it met with the 
most wonderful reception wherever it was presented ; but that 
as soon as it came to be loaded with forms, and to receive that 
body, of which Villers speaks, it came to a stand, and has been 
absolutely so from that period to this. Were the Greeks and 
Romans, whose religion had so complex and splendid a body, 
more gross and immersed in matter than our barbarous, druidi- 
cal ancestors, whose religion was so nearly pure spirit ? Were 
the Scots at the Reformation more refined than the English be* 



t)G Spirit and Influence, of the 

strives to throw off every thing that is body and 
form in religion, that he may devote himself entirely 
to its spirit, this rejection of a visible and exter- 
nal worship is the high roac to mysticism. It is fre- 
quently the propensity of contemplative and solitary 
men, who perceiving not the occasion to operate 
on others, conceive they may dispense with the 
senses, and restrict themselves to the pure spirit 
of religion. This attachment to the spirit, di- 
vested of every thing which is local or accidental, 
must awaken, in all men, who cherish it, nearly 
the same sentiments. Hence the singular con- 
formity remarked between the opinions of our 
Christian mystics, Ouesnel, Fenelon, and some 
Germans and Spaniards, with the opinions of the 
Bramins in India. Mysticism, the offspring in 

cause they adopted a form of Christianity with much less ; 
much less of the material organ than the English ? Were the 
Saxons more refined and less material than the French, though 
the one embraced the Reformation, and the other adhered to 
the overgrown body of the Catholic church ? 

The author's definition, or description of superstition and 
mysticism, being founded upon this erroneous doctrine, is very 
faulty. Superstition does not consist entirely in the attachment 
to outward forms 5 though that is a part of it. The attachment 
to the doctrine of transubstantiaticn, and the infallibility of the 
pope is as true superstition, as that to the worship of images , 
and the divine right of episcopal ordination, as the doctrine of 
purgatory. And unquestionably attachment to the pure spirit 
of religion is not mysticism, otherwise was Jesus Christ the 
:^:iz perfect of mystics. 



Reformation of Luther* 6l 

general, of mild and contemplative natures, may 
produce an intellectual fanaticism ; which is not 
however of the smallest danger to society, so long 
as the principle is sincere, and is not made the 
tool of hypocrisy. Our revolution, within the 
short space of its duration had its superstitious 
votaries, its mystics, and its hypocrites. This 
dry digression which it is now high time to con- 
clude, can only be excused by the necessity under 
which the author lay, to place in the clearest 
light the aspect under which, in his opinion, ought 
to be viewed the influence of a revolution which 
began in the province of religion; and thus to 
draw as it were a previous outline of his task. 



62 Spirit and Influence of the 



SECTION III. 

On that of Luther in Particular. 

1 WO objects are peculiarly dear to the heart of' 
man, and it is not unusual to see him sacrifice for 
them all his other interests, and even his life it- 
self. The one is the preservation of his social 
rights, and the other, the independance of his re- 
ligious opinions ; liberty in his civil transactions, 
and liberty in the acts of his conscience. To 
both he ascribes a value equal to that of his ex- 
istence. The idea of recovering them when they 
have been lost carries him to the height of enthu- 
siasm; that of losing them when they are in his 
enjoyment throws him into a state of desperation 
which fits him for every attempt. Both of those 
sentiments lurked secretly in Europe at the be- 
ginning of the sixteenth century. One nation, 
which had lost its civil and religious liberty, began 
to feel the weight and ignominy of its chains; 
another which vet enjoyed some degree of inde- 
pendence shuddered at the prospect of being 
speedily deprived of it. All the states, in that 
part of the world, and mere particularly the con- 
federacy of states which formed the empire of 
Germany, had been long harassed and torn to 



Reformation of Luther. 6% 

pieces by the obstinate struggle maintained be- 
tween the Emperors, successors of the Caesars, 
and the Popes, successors of St. Peter; a contest, 
the prize of which was the unlimited sovereignty 
over the ancient territory of the Roman empire. 
Both competitors advanced or affected equal 
claims upon Rome, and it was clear in their eyes, 
as well as in those of all Europe, that the master 
of Rome must also be that of the empire ; so 
difficult are vulgar prejudices to be eradicated! 
The magical name of Rome imposed upon man- 
kind ages after its real glory had vanished; it 
even imposes upon them at the present moment. 
One of the most pernicious habits of man is that 
of persuading himself mechanically, that what 
has lasted long ought to last for ever; that ex- 
istence for a day establishes a right for the day 
after; that history should be only a periodical re- 
petition of the same events, and that every cen- 
tury ought to resemble the preceding.* Rome 
had long been the capital of the world ; it fol- 
lowed that she must be so for ever. It entered 
into no body's thoughts at first to deny this con- 
clusion, and to leave the master of Rome for what 
he was. Men fought with one another long to 

* " Were the examples of the past even true, they prove no- 
thing with regard to the future. This proposition is more sure : 
whatever is possible may happen." Fred. II. CEuvres Posthu- 
roous II. p, 7. Author, 



64 Spirit and Influence of the 

determine who should remain in possession of the 
sovereign city, and to which of the two rivals 
they should submit their necks ; they contended 
literally for the choice of tyrants. 

The genealogy of the pretended claim which 
the successors of Charlemagne advanced upon 
Rome and the empire, is sufficiently known. 
" They were called Ctcsars: Now the ancient 
emperors of Rome had been called Ccesars, and 
Rome was the mistress of the greater part of 
Europe: therefore the prince called Ccesar ought 
incontestibly to reign as emperor over Rome and 
over Europe." This argument was long regarded 
as irrefragable. 

The claim of the popes was not so very clear, 
but it was only the more respected. As Rome 
was the natural mistress of the whole world, and 
as the prince who had so long resided at Rome 
was the head of the empire, it was evident that 
the bishop of Rome ought also to be the head of 
the church. By machinations, and plans skil- 
fully formed, and steadily pursued, this primacy of 
the Roman pontiff was by degrees, but not with- 
out difficulties and trouble, established. After- 
wards when Rome came to be without an emperor 
the dignity of the pontiff only increased. He 
was now the principal figure in Rome, where he 
had formerly been only the second. And when 
the princes at the head of the Franks and Ro- 



Reformation of Luther. 65 

mans became inspired with the singular ambition 
of^being crowned emperors in the city of the 
Ccesars, it was the popes who performed the ho- 
nours of the empire, and who appeared to confer 
it by crowning its new rulers. As soon as the 
pope was invested with the office of crowning the 
emperors, Europe, besotted, no longer regarded 
as such any but those who received the crown 
from the papal hands. Hence the flatteries, the 
submissions, the concessions of the princes who 
aspired to the imperial dignity, to obtain the fa- 
vour of the pontiff. Disposing of the first of 
crowns, this important personage thence concluded 
that the rest were in the same manner at his dis- 
posal. The sovereign of a numerous clergy, 
rich, active, and spread over all the nations; 
reigning by this means over all men's consciences, 
it was easy to establish himself in the general 
opinion, as the depository of the power of God 
upon earth, the vicar of Jesus Christ, the ruler 
of .kings.* If any prince dared attempt to escape 

* This is the language, not only of the bulls, issued by 
Rome at this and succeeding periods, but of the most popular 
and extensively circulated writings of the times j which shews 
that the prejudice was very generally established. We read in 
the preface of the Mirror of Sxcabia, a work belonging to the 
t?nd of the thirteenth century : " At the time when God made 
iiimself prince of peace, he sent upon the earth the two swords 
which he had in heaven for the protection of chdftianity, and 

p 



66 Spirit and Influence of the 

from this authority, proceeding from heaven, the 
pontiff anathematized him, threw him out of the 
communion of the faithful; and his miserable- 
subjects abandoned him as one infected with the 
pestilence. He generally went to beg pardon of 
the angry Vice-god, to appease him by the meanest 
submissions, and by the acknowledgment of all 
the rights which the haughty pontiff assumed; 
after which the contrite prince was re-established 
in his authority and honours; and by every similar 
experiment, the power of the popes, sanctioned 
and enhanced, was established more firmly thaa 



ever 



Heaven forbid I should be justly chargeable 
with the vile intention of insulting in this dis- 
course the clergy, or the head of the Romish 
.church. At the present period, after ages of hu- 
miliation, of pillage, and even of persecution, have 
expiated ages of pride, avidity, and intolerance, it 
would be cruel to impute to the posterity the 
crimes of their predecessors. The clergy of these 
times are not the clergy of former times. How 
desirable to be even able to think that the for- 
mer spirit, which after the days of vain glory 
produced so many days of reproach to the churchy 
is altogether extinguished among her ministers. 

rave them both to St. Peter, the one for temporal justice and 
the other for spiritual. The one for temporal justice the pope, 
entrusts to the emperor." Author. 



Reformation of Luther. 67 

At any rate we ought to believe that the greater 
part of them participate in the illumination of 
their cotemporaries, that the strictness of modern 
orthodoxy has given place to a spirit, milder and 
more conformable to the ancient spirit of the 
gospel. It is not on the latter pontiffs therefore 
who have displayed virtues truly apostolical in the 
holy chair ; it is not on a multitude of learned 
and modest priests, that judgment is pronounced 
in the merited exposure of the vices and conduct 
of the pontiffs and priests of the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries. Who will impute to Marcus 
Aurelius the crimes of Nero, or to Pius the VIL 
the enormities of Alexander the VI ? # But, 
this observation being once made, the historian 
whose office it is to paint events as they really 
are, to explain the causes of the provocation and 
resistance of the people in an age remote from 
our own, must be allowed to proceed without 
dissimulation, to think and speak with the cotem- 
poraries of the actions which he relates, to unveil 

* This is very finely said, and deserves the particular atten- 
tion of Lord Redesdale, who wrote the celebrated letters to 
Earl Fingal last year, on the inconsistency between the Catholic 
religion and loyalty to a Protestant prince. How strange it is 
that a principle, apparently so congenial to the human heart, 
when uncorrupted, as liberality, should, even at this late period,, 
be so rarely found ! 

P 2 






68 Spirit and Influence of the 

the shame of those who have merited shame, 
and vindicate the indignation of the oppressed 
by the accurate description of the oppression. 

The reflections on the essence of the Reforma- 
tion, operated in Europe by Luther, ought to be 
confined to three principal points, which deter- 
mine sufficiently its nature and subsequent influ- 
ence. Without considering all the three together 
one would be in danger of misapprehending the 
real essence of that great event, of taking a par- 
tial and incomplete view of the general action and 
spirit of the human mind in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, a spirit all the powers of which were at 
once unfolded on that occasion. 

The first of those three points is the political 
state of the European nations, their internal con- 
dition, their situation with regard to one another, 
with regard to the Head of the empire, and to 
the Head of the church. 

The second is the religious condition of those 
nations, their subjection more or less to the de- 
crees of the pontifical throne, and the disposition 
in that respect of the sovereigns. 

The third, which is intimately connected with 
both the first two, but still more immediately with 
the second, is the state of improvement, of rea- 
son, and knowledge in Europe, which, reduced to 
barbarism in the fifth century, immersed in chaos 



Reformation of Luther. 69 

and darkness during ages that followed, had how- 
ever for about three centuries begun gradually, 
though feebly, to restore itself to light. 

It is only by exhausting those three topics that 
we can arrive at a competent knowledge of the 
general spirit, and of the position of the Eu- 
ropean states in the sixteenth century, and thence 
to a knowledge of the consequences of the Re- 
formation. But how can we here engage in the 
immense detail, in the researches, and discus- 
sions, which this threefold investigation would 
require ? The author must confine himself to a 
vague notification of the principal objects, and 
leave it to be only conceived what the historian 
could do. 

A Sketch of the Political, Religious, and Literary 
State of Europe at the beginning of the Six* 
teenth Century. 

PART 1.— POLITICS. 

From the wreck of the Roman empire in the 
Tvest was formed, on the soil of Europe, a num > 
ber of states, at the head of which in general 
were the leaders of those tribes of the north 
which had overthrown the empire. Weak and 
powerful by turns, and long without cohesion, 
they changed their masters and their form at the 
will of events; they were seen to rise, increase * 



70 Spirit and Influence of the 

decline, and fall ; and amid all these vicissitudes, 
few ideas appeared of an union, of a confederacy 
among the weak to oppose the strong, and not a 
shadow as yet of that great and prolific concep- 
tion, an equilibrium among the powers. Mean- 
while the feudal aristocracy lost by degrees its 
cohesion. The crusades and other wars which 
had impoverished the nobility; commerce and in- 
dustry which had enriched the class of citizens; 
the diffusion among them of knowledge which 
awakened the sense of the natural privileges and 
rights of man, procured at last in spite of all re- 
sistance the establishment of a political existence 
for the third estate, the order of the people, and 
of their influence in the government of the nation. 
The members of some cities, which constituted 
themselves free, dared even to distribute the so- 
vereignty among themselves, which was not with- 
out some effect upon general opinion, at that time 
so involved in darkness, and fed with prejudices. 

Italy , divided into a great number of feeble 
states, some monarchical, others republican, torn 
to pieces by the jealousy and hatred of those little 
communities toward one another, by the mutinous 
barons and great lords who aspired to indepen- 
dence, was still the unhappy scene of ihe inva- 
sions of its powerful neighbours, the French, 
Germans, and Spaniards, who all strove to obtain 
in it a firm footing, one at Naples, another at 



Reformation of Luther. 7 i 

Milan, Mantua, and so on. That fine country 
was given up to ravages, which succeeded one 
another without end. Its feeble sovereigns, at 
one time ranging themselves on the side of a 
powerful conqueror, at another jealous of his pro- 
gress, and plotting his expulsion from their coun- 
try, saved themselves in general only by perfidy, 
and by an artful and knavish policy, which from 
that period has been one of the leading features 
in the Italian character. This country which had 
long been the richest in Europe, and the centre 
of all commerce, was on the eve of beholding this 
source of its wealth dried up by means of the new 
paths of commerce which had just been opened 
upon the ocean by the Portuguese. 

The Turks had lately taken possession of the 
capital of the eastern empire, and had carried 
west their victorious arms into Calabria, Hungary, 
and to the very gates of Vienna. 

Poland, abandoned during the course of the 
sixteenth century to the convulsions of an anar- 
chical aristocracy, and consuming its whole 
strength within itself, was insignificant abroad. 
In the northern part of it, the knights of the 
Teutonic order, had, under the pretext of con- 
verting the infidels, established a dominion, the 
origin of the kingdom of Prussia. 

Russia did not as yet exist with regard to the 



1% Spirit and Influence of the 

west of Europe, where she has since acquired so 
great an ascendancy. 

Siveden and Denmark were nearly as insignifi- 
cant with regard to the southern countries. The 
kings of Denmark, after many wars, and vicissi- 
tudes, had reduced Sweden, which bore with im- 
patience that foreign yoke, and eagerly desired to 
throw it off. A "hero, to whom it gave birth, ac- 
complished that enterprise. Gustavus Vasa be- 
came the legitimate sovereign of his country 
which he had delivered. 

The North of Germany, which may be deno- 
minated Saxon Germany, because it is the ancient 
Saxon race which there predominates, was divided 
into states for the most part neither extensive nor 
rich. They were connected with the southern 
part of the empire only by the tie, at that time so 
lax, and so ill defined, of the Germanic confede- 
racy. The emperor, at the same time, harassed 
without ceasing by the Turks had the most urgent 
motives for conciliating the Saxon princes, from 
whom he might obtain some assistance. That 
part of the empire had seen formed within its 
bosom a formidable league of commercial cities, 
bound together by a common interest. The Teu- 
tonic hanse was erected to resist the pillage of the 
feudal robbers, who from their castles, or more 
properly speaking, their dens, infested the high- 



Reformation of Luther. 

ways in their neighbourhood, and plundered the 
merchants as they travelled from one fair to an- 
other.* The cities of Lombardy, and those on the 

* " But the age of chivalry is gone. — That of sophists, 
economists, and calculators, has succeeded ; and the glory of 
Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never more, shall we 
behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud sub- 
mission, that dignified obediency, that subordination of the 
heart, which kept alive even in servitude itself, the spirit of 
an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap 
defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and of he- 
roic enterprise is gone!" 

Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, 

To this rhapsody we will oppose the description of a judicious 
and accurate historian. Robertson's Charles V, Vol. I. 

" The provisions of the feudal policy for the interior order 
and tranquillity of society were extremely defective. The prin- 
ciples of disorder and corruption are discernible in that consti- 
tution under its best and most perfect form. They soon un- 
folded themselves, and, spreading with rapidity through every 
part of the system, produced the most fatal effects. The bond 
of political union was extremely feeble -, the sources of anarchy 
were innumerable. The monarchical and aristocratical parts of 
the constitution, having no intermediate power to balance them, 
were perpetually at variance, and justling with each other. 
-The powerful vassals of the crown soon extorted a confirmation 
for life of those grants of land, which being at first purely gra- 
tuitous, had been bestowed only during pleasure. Not satisfied 
with this, they prevailed to have them converted into heredi- 
tary possessions. One step more completed their usurpations, 
and rendered them unalienable. With an ambition no less en- 
terprising, and more preposterous, they appropriated to them- 
selves titles of honour, as well as offices of power or trust. 






74 Spirit and Influence of the 

Rhine had formed similar confederacies: And 
those associations of free men, so beneficently 

These personal marks of distinction, which the public admira- 
tion bestows on illustrious merit, or which the public confi- 
dence confers on extraordinary abilities, were annexed to cer- 
tain families, and transmitted like fiefs, from father to son, by- 
hereditary right. The crown vassals having thus secured the 
possession of their lands and dignities, the nature of the feudal 
institutions, which though founded on subordination verged to 
independence, led them to new, and still more dangerous en- 
croachments on the prerogatives of the sovereign. They ob- 
tained the power of supreme jurisdiction, both civil and crimi- 
nal, within their own territories; the right of coining money $ 
together with the privilege of carrying on war against their pri- 
vate enemies, in their own name, and by their own authority. 
The ideas of political subjection were almost entirely lost, and 
frequently scarce any appearance of feudal subordination re- 
mained. Nobles, who had acquired such enormous power, 
scorned to consider themselves as subjects. They aspired openly 
at being independent : the bonds which connected the principal 
members of the constitution with the crown, were dissolved. 
A kingdom, considerable in name and in extent, was broken 
into as many separate principalities as it contained powerful ba- 
rons. A thousand causes of jealousy and discord subsisted 
among them, and gave rise to as many wars. Every country 
in Europe, wasted or kept in continual alarm during these end- 
less contests, was filled with castles and places of strength 
erected for the security of the inhabitants j not against foreign 
force, but against internal hostilities. An universal anarchy, 
destructive, in a great measure, of all the advantages which. 
men expect to derive from society, prevailed. The people, the 
most numerous as well as the most useful part of the commu- 
nity, were either reduced to a state of actual servitude, or 



Reformation of Lutlier. 75 

active were among the small number of establish- 
ments truly favourable to the human race of which 

treated with the same insolence and rigour as if they had been 
degraded into that wretched condition. The king, stripped of 
almost every prerogative, and without authority to enact or to 
execute salutary laws, could neither protect the innocent, nor 
punish the guilty. The nobles, superior to all restraint, ha- 
rassed each other with perpetual wars, oppressed their fellow- 
subjects, and humbled or insulted their sovereign. To crown 
all, time gradually fixed, and rendered venerable, this perni- 
cious system, which violence had established. 

" To these pernicious effects of the feudal anarchy may be 
added its fatal influence on the character and improvement of 
the human mind. If men do not enjoy the protection of re- 
gular government, together with the expectation of personal 
security, which naturally flows from it, they never attempt to 
make progress in science, nor aim at attaining refinement in 
taste, or in manners. That period of turbulence, oppression, 
and rapine, which I have described, was ill-suited to favour 
improvement in any of these. In less than a century after the 
barbarous nations settled in their new conquests, almost all the 
effects of die knowledge and civility, which the Romans had 
spread, through Europe, disappeared. Not only the arts of 
elegance, which minister to luxury, and are supported by it, 
but many of the useful arts, without which life can scarcely be 
considered as comfortable, were neglected or lost. Literature, 
science, taste, were words little in use during the ages which 
we are contemplating j or, if they occur at any time, eminence 
in them is ascribed to persons and productions so contemptible, 
that it appears their true import was little understood. Persons 
of the highest rank, and in the most eminent stations, could 
not read or write. Many of the clergy did not understand the 
breviary which they were obliged daily to recite j some of them 



7 6 Spirit and Influence of the 

the modern nations have to boast at that early 
period. 

could scarcely read it. The memory of past transactions was, 
in a great degree, lost, or preserved in annals rilled with trifling 
events, or legendary tales. Even the codes of laws, published 
by the several nations which established themselves in the dif- 
ferent countries of Europe, fell into disuse, while, in their 
place, customs, vague and capricious, were substituted. The 
human mind, neglected, uncultivated, and depressed, con- 
tinued in the most profound ignorance. Europe, during four 
centuries, produced few authors who merit to be read, either 
on account of the elegance of their composition, or the justness 
and novelty of their sentiments. There are few inventions, 
useful or ornamental to society, of which that long period cart 
boast. 

" As the inhabitants of Europe, during these centuries, 
were strangers to the arts which embellish a polished age, they 
were destitute of the virtues which abound among people who 
continue in a simple state. Force of mind, a sense of personal 
dignity, gallantry in enterprise, invincible perseverance in exe- 
cution, contempt of danger and of death, are the characteristic 
virtues of uncivilized nations. But these are all the offspring 
of equality and independence, both which the feudal institu- 
tions had destroyed. The spirit of domination corrupted the 
nobles ; the yoke of servitude depressed the people; the gene- 
rous sentiments inspired by a sense of equality were extin- 
guished, and hardly any thing remained to be a check on fero- 
city and violence. Human society is in its most corrupted state, 
at that period when men have lost their original independence 
and simplicity of manners, but have not attained that degree 
of refinement which introduces a sense of decorum and of pro- 
priety in conduct, as a restraint on those passions which lead 
to heinous crimes. Accordingly, a greater number of thosa 



Reformation of Luther* 77 

Bohemia had in a particular manner exhibited 
to Europe the example of a republican spirit, but 
only in its application to the liberty of conscience. 
The partisans of the martyr of Bohemia, John 
Huss, had maintained by prodigies of bravery 
and firmness their religious faith. The Austrian 
princes had been unable to wrest it from them. A 
capitulation had taken place between the prince 
and the subjects on the article of religion. This 
example appeared to invite the rest of the christian 
world to emancipate themselves in the same man- 
ner. It is not because the brave Bohemians 
made use of the cup in the sacrament that they 
were praise- worthy and the proper objects of emu- 
lation; but it is because they did in this respect 
what their conscience prescribed, and because 
they had the courage to vindicate to themselves 
the right of doing so. 

The southern part of Germany was divided in 
a manner nearly similar to that of the north ; but 
its better half formed part of the states of the 
colossal house of Austria, which invested, almost 

atrocious actions., which fill the mind of man with astonishment) 
and horror, occur in the history of the centuries under review, 
than in that of any period of the same extent in the annals of 
Europe. If we open the history of Gregory of Tours, or of 
any contemporary author, we meet with a series of deeds of 
cruelty, perfidy, and revenge, so wild and enormous, 33 almost 
to exceed belief," 






78 Spirit and Influence of the 

by hereditary title, with the imperial dignity, en- 
riched with all the states of Burgundy under 
Maximilian, with the crowns of Spain under 
Charles the V, as well as with a portion of Italy, 
no longer even disguised its design of an universal 
monarchy. That power possessed the preponde- 
rance at the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
and threatened to swallow up all the rest. 

Mean while, France, its noble rival, destined 
to contribute so powerfully to save Europe from 
that ignominy, had expelled from its soil the 
English, who so long contended for a part of it. 
The standing mercenary army which the kings 
were obliged to keep up on thac occasion was of 
prodigious service in enabling them to unite the 
provinces of the independent lords to the crown, 
to strip the vassals, great and small, and to 
strengthen the monarchy at their expence. Louis 
the XI had in a great measure accomplished 
this aggrandizement of the regal power. Charles 
VIII and Louis XII had made trial in Italy of 
their arms against the imperial. In spite of their 
disasters they had at least shewn that they might 
become formidable. After them Francis I found 
himself at the head of a commanding power, and 
undoubtedly the first in Europe after that of 
Austria. 

Between those two powers, and at the expence 
of the former had been formed a republic of moun- 
4 



Reformation of Luther* 79 

taineers, simple, and energetic, who had first 
given credibility in modern Europe to what is re- 
lated of the courage of the Spartans at Thermo- 
pylae and of their virtues in Laconia. The Swiss 
had recovered the right which all men recover 
when they can, of living independent, and of 
being their own masters. They protected them- 
selves against Austria, of whose jealousy they 
were aware, by fortifying themselves with the 
friendship of the kings of France. 

England, who had so long neglected the part 
which nature called her to act, that of a maritime 
power ; who had so long wasted her strength in 
the conquest or preservation of some provinces 
in the west of France, had, at last, obtained, we 
may say, the good fortune to behold her armies 
expelled from the continent, and obliged to retire 
to their own island. This apparent loss became 
a real advantage to the nation which turned, in 
the sequel, its activity toward the establishment 
of its liberty and its navy. It was not in the 
sixteenth century what it has since become : but 
it was even then in the rank of the first powers of 
Europe; and Henry VIII, an inconsistent and 
violent prince, who began by writing in the stile 
of a theologian against Luther, and concluded by 
following his example, would have played in Eu- 
rope a much more important part than he did, if. 



80 v kit and Influence of the 

less occupied with his passions, his amours, and 
his cruelties, he had made a wiser employment of 
his power. 

Spain had long wasted her strength, contending 
on her own soil with the Moors, who during some 
centuries possessed the finest part of it. At last 
those conquerors were expelled. Ferdinand of 
Arragon, who had the honour of atchieving this 
deliverance to Spain, married Isabella, and thus 
joined the crown of Castile to that of Arragon. 
Those united states fell to Charles V, and Spain 
formed under him only a province of the vast 
Austrian monarch v. 

Me;- r the political system, and the new 

species of warfare introduced, became daily more 
favourable to the gi :wers. The invention 

of artillery, which rendered castles and mere 
walls altogether useless, produced the necessity of 
erecting fortresses, too expensive for the little 
princes and states. Standing ; *o secured 

to powerful princes a decided advantage over those 
who could not support the expence. The Princes 
of the Empire had more occasion than ever to be 
afraid lest Charles V should treat them as Louis 
XI had treated the barons in France. Notwith- 
standing this danger they continued to enfee 
themselves by dividing their territories amoi 
their heirs, and giving por:i:::s c to all 



Reformation of Luther. 81 

their sons, as if the people and the provinces had 
been their personal property. No person at this 
time called that right in question. 

The Europeans, hitherto confined to the old 
world, had lately penetrated beyond these bounds. 
The roads to India and to America were now 
opened. At the same time that bold navigators 
explored in this manner an ocean whose limits 
seemed to preclude that event, the minds of men 
appeared every where endeavouring to escape from 
that narrow sphere of ideas, in which they had 
languished for ages. The human race were visibly 
advancing toward the maturity of a new era. A 
change in the order of things, an approaching 
commotion became no longer doubtful. The 
bowels of the volcano were heard to resound; 
heated vapours were perceived escaping; and 
burning spar ;s were seen flying through the 
gloom. Such was the portentous fermentation 
which appeared in the political state of the nations / 
at the opening of the sixteenth century., 

PART II.— RELIGION. 
Religious superstition, which had more or less 
tormented all those nations, began to abate 
in some places ; and enlightened men every where 
appeared who successfully attacked it. The doc- 
trine of the Waldenses and Albigenses was not 
forgotten in France. Wickliff had lifted up his 

G 



82 Spirit and Influence ef the 

voice in England, and had been heard. The Huss- 
ites, and their success in Bohemia, have already 
been mentioned. 

The princes and kings all bore with more or 
less impatience the pride and pretensions of the 
Roman pontiff. Some of them ventured to op- 
pose him openly; and the university of Paris 
more than once served as the instrument of the 
royal power in answering the menaces of Rome. 
The courage was even acquired of appealing to a 
future council, which thus was plainly set above 
the Pope. Other princes, whether from convic- 
tion or policy, still bent the knee before Rome, 
and appeared to make common cause with the 
head of the church. Charles the V, for example, 
could not avoid remaining connected with the 
Holy See. It was his interest to conciliate its 
support in Italy, where he wished to rule. His 
subjects in Spain, where the inquisition had been 
lately introduced, and where the terror of the 
Moors which they had so long endured, had con- 
firmed the people in the most superstitious Catho- 
licism, would have instantly revolted against him 
if he had appeared a less zealous Catholic than 
they. 

The countries which enjoyed a republican con- 
stitution, and which maintained among them a 
bolder sentiment of liberty, were those too which 
shewed themselves least timid with regard to 



Reformation of Luther. S3 

Rome. It is well known with what noble firm- 
ness the senate of Venice opposed a constant 
barrier to her usurpations. Some cantons, essen- 
tially republican, as Holland, Holstein, and 
Lower Germany, were never entirely Popish, and 
the Reformation found them already reformed. 

The eyes of men, moreover, began to open. 
The impolitic violence of some Popes, the scan- 
dalous lives of others, the shameless profligacy of 
their court and capital, the bad morals of the 
clergy, the ignorance and impudence of several 
of the mendicant orders, those faithful satellites 
of the Papal throne; the seventy years of capti- 
vity at Avignon ; the schism of 40 years which 
succeeded, when two Popes, and even three were 
seen, all having their partisans, all reviling and 
excommunicating one another, loading each other 
with disgusting reproaches and imputations of the 
basest crimes, lively exposures, which covered 
with ignominy both rivals at once ; the multiplied 
exactions of the church, particularly indulgences, 
the monstrous abuse of the most monstrous of 
powers; the intolerance and cruelties of the in- 
quisition; these are causes abundantly sufficient 
to explain that hatred and contempt of the Komish 
hierarchy which secretly lurked in every corner. 
But what was to become of a power founded en- 
tirely upon opinion, the moment opinion was 
withdrawn from it ? To doubt of its rights was 

g2 



84 "Spirit and Influence of the 

to annihilate them; to inspect its foundations, 
was to undermine them; to examine was to 
destroy. 

The Popes, in the mean time, who knew better 
perhaps than any one else the deep wounds by 
which their authority suffered, allowed no appear- 
ance of this consciousness to escape, and affected 
that security which imposes upon opinion. They 
knew how to yield at times, and to bend when 
necessity constrained them to it; but they changed 
their tone as little as possible, always hoping that 
a better time would return, a time of bigotry and 
of darkness, in which they might display, in all 
its magnificence, their obstinate system of La- 
maism* The irascible Paul the III, as audacious 
as Hildebrand, summoned the king of England 
to appear before him ; and on the refusal of the 
no less irascible Henry VIII, declared him to have 
forfeited his crown for himself and his descendants 
for ever.-f- Pius IV treated the king of Naples in 

* Lamaism is the religion of the Tartars of Thibet; the most 
absolute, tyrannical, and degrading superstition that has ap- 
peared among men. To denominate the Roman Catholic reli- 
gion Lamaism, is one of the severest sentences that could have 
been pronounced. 

+ Nos-— Henricum privationis regni incurisse poenam decla- 
ramus — Ejus & complicum, &x. Filii poenarum participes 
sint. Omnes & singulos Henrici regis, & aliorum preedictorum 
filios, aliosque descendentes (ncmine excepto, nullaque minoris 
astatis, aut sexus, "vel ignorantiae, vel alterius cujusvis causae 



Reformation of Luther. 85 

the same manner : Pius V pronounced a similar 
sentence against the high-minded Elizabeth of 
England; and on each of these occasions the. 
Vicar of Jesus Christ held forth with assurance 
his incontestible rights over all thrones and all 
the earth. He allotted America as fast as it was 
discovered, and even before it was discovered ; # 

habita ratione) dignitatibul, dominiis, civitatibus, castris, pri- 
vates & ad ilia ac alia in posterum obtinenda inhabiles esse de- 
cernimus et inhabilitamus. Decernimus quod Henricus rex et 
complices et sequaces, nee non praefati descendentes, ex tunc 
infames existant, ad testimonia non admittantur, testaments 
facere non possint, &:c. (Bullar. Magn.) 

This is what we may call an anger truly pontifical ! It is not 
contented with condemning and declaring infamous, even to 
the fourth generation 5 it reaches to* eternity, and denounces the 
latest descendants of the latest posterity. Author. 

* Nos motu proprio — de nostra liberalitate — omnes insulas & 
terras firmas inventas et inveniendas, detectas et detegendas 
versus occidentem et meridiem, fabricando et construendo 
unam lineam a polo arctico, scilicet septemtrione, ad polum 
antarcticum, scilicet meridiem, sive sint versus Indiam, aut 
versus aliam quamcunque partem, quae linea distet a qualibet 
insularum quae vulgariter nuncupantur De los Azores y Cabo 
Vitrde, centum leucis versus occidentem et meridiem, quae per 
alium regem aut principem Christianum non fuerint actualiter 
possessae, auctoritate omnipotentis Dei et vicariatus J. C. qua 
fungimur in terris, cum omnibus illarum dominiis, civitatibus, 
castris, locis, et villis, jurisque et jurisdictionibus, ac perti- 
nentiis universis, vobis haeredibusque vestris, in perpetuum, 
tenore praesentium donamus, vosque et haeredes illarum dominos 
facimus et deputamus. (Bullar. Magn. V. I. p. 454.) 



Sd Spirit and bt/hience of tlie 

and he had his legion of authors^ of theologians, 
and of lawyers, who demonstrated with intrepidity 
all the sanctity and evidence of his rights. The 
grateful church has placed the names of several of 
them in the calendar.* 

This disastrous system, which subjected civil 
society to the iron sceptre of an exclusive church; 
a church, out of which there was no salvation,-}- 

A strange thing at this time was the public law of Europe, 
founded on such pieces as this. It appears that the apostolic 
council, which in general does not pique itself upon great geo- 
graphical exactness, acknowledges no sovereigns on the earth 
as legitimate but the Christian. All the others may be dis- 
possessed without ceremony. Author. 

* Saint Thomas, Saint Anthony, Saint Bonaventure, Saint 
Jxaymand, &c. For the same cause she invested with the Car- 
dinal purple Turrecremata, Reginald Pole, Albert Peghius, 
Silvester Prieiras, Navarrus, Bellarmin, &c. Author. 

+ The quality of Roman Catholic had entirely supplanted 
that of man, and even that of Christian. Whosoever was not 
Roman Catholic was not a man, was less than a man, and were 
he a king, it was a good action to take away his life. Of the 
following stile, in this respect, was the ordinary language of the 
casuists of Rome. I quote at a venture the words of one of 
them. Ostendimus jam satis aperte justum esse, ut hsereticus 
occidatur: quo sutem genere mortis sit occidendus, parum ad 
rem facit. Nam quocunque modo occidatur, semper consulitur 
ecclesiae. Alphonsus a Castro. (De justaHaereticorum poena. 
L. II. cap. 12.) 

This Castro wrote at a time when the Reformation, being 
already begun d should have taught people of his cloth to be 
more circumspect. One might fill volumes with similar pas* 



Reformation of Luther. 8/ 

could not fail to alienate from her by degrees the 
superior order of minds. Remonstrances, com- 
plaints, arose on all sides. A thousand voices 
joined together to demand a Reformation of the 
church in the head and in the members, in faith 
and in morals; these are the consecrated terms. 
Three councils in rapid succession, at Pisa, Con- 
stance, and Basle, had disclosed the wounds of 
that aged body, and probed them to the bottom. 
The general constraint and dissatisfaction had 
become more visible than ever at the beginning of 
the l6th century; and in this state of affairs it 
was that the young and voluptuous Medicis 
ascended the pontifical throne. A friend to the 
iine arts, from which he expected only celebrity 
and enjoyment, an artful, but presumptuous poli- 
tician, prepossessed with contempt for the unpo- 
lished coarseness of Germany, under which he 
was unable to discern a penetration and manliness 
of character, the energy of which he was soon to 
experience, Leo the X was not possessed of 
powers to contend with Luther; and the haughty 
weakness of the one prepared abundant success to 
the intrepid firmness of the other. 

sages, and in reading them we are reminded of the horrible 
joy which Gregory XIII displayed on the news ©f the mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew. Author, 



88 Spirit and Influence of the 

PART III.— LITERATURE. 

The ignorance which the barbarians of the 
north brought with them into Europe, seconded 
by the continual wars and devastations which from 
the time of their appearance desolated that part of 
the globe, had extinguished in it almost every 
ray of learning. That low degree of instruction 
which was silently transmitted through the first 
years of the middle ages was confined to the ec- 
clesiastics, and in a great measure to the cloisters. 
In those retreats, often respected by the supersti- 
tion of ferocious warriors, who respected nothing 
else, some books were preserved and copied, the 
annals of the times were composed, and a certain 
mixture was taught, in general extremely absurd, 
but sometimes not a little astonishing both for its 
subtilty and brilliancy, of a theology, a logic, and 
metaphysics, in the highest degree deformed, 
and by which hardly any clear and just ideas were 
conveyed to the student. It will be easily under- 
stood that I speak of the scholastic philosophy 
which had so many periods of varying and op- 
posite fortune; a desert uninhabitable by common 
sense ; but here and there interspersed with spots 
where we discover the hand of a beneficient 
nature, and on which the mind dwells with 
extacy. 

If the churchmen preserved in this manner the 



Reformation of Luther. sq 

faint tradition of knowledge, it must, at the same 
time, be acknowledged, that in their hands it 
more than once became dangerous, and was con- 
verted by its guardians to pernicious purposes. 
The domination of Rome, built upon a scaffolding 
of false historical proofs, had need of the assist- 
ance of those faithful auxiliaries, to employ on 
the one side their half knowledge to fascinate 
men's eyes, and on the other- to prevent those 
eyes from perceiving the truth, and from becoming 
enlightened by the torch of criticism. The local 
usurpations of the clergy in several places were 
founded on similar claims, and had need of similar 
means for their preservation. It followed there- 
fore both that the little knowledge permitted 
should be mixed with error, and that the nations 
should be carefully maintained in profound igno- 
rance, favourable to superstition. Learning, as 
far as possible, was rendered inaccessible to the 
laity. The study of the ancient languages was 
represented as idolatrous and abominable. Above 
all, the reading of the holy scriptures, that sacred 
inheritance of all Christians, was severely inter- 
dicted. To read the bible, without the permis^ 
sion of ones superiors, was a crime: to translate 
it into the vulgar tongue would have been a teme- 
rity worthy of the severest punishment. The 
Popes had indeed their reasons for preventing the 
words of Jesus Christ from reaching the people, 



90 Spirit and Influence of the 

and a direct communication from being established 
between the Gospel and the Christian. When it 
becomes necessary to keep in the shade objects as 
conspicuous as faith and public worship, it be- 
hoved the darkness to be universal and impene ■ 
trable. When the numerous legions of mendicant 
monks were found insufficient for this purpose, 
the horrible inquisition was invented, to extin- 
guish by blood and tears every spark of light 
which the night should exhibit.* 

* It is sot in support of the tyranny of the church of Rom» 
only that opposition to the progress of knowledge has been 
made. The extinction of knowledge is naturally and necessarily 
the aim of all tyrannical power, as knowledge is that enemy, 
whose elevation is its downfal. It may be laid down as a sure 
principle, that the degree of eagerness which every power 
shews for the extinction or confinement of knowledge is the 
exact measure of its tyrannical nature or tendency. How many 
efforts are made in various parts of Europe at this moment to 
restrain the free course of knowledge. In Austria a new degree 
of rigour has been adopted to prevent the circulation of all 
books which teach any thing contrary to the views of the 
court. No book is to be sold without a licence from commis- 
sioners appointed by the court. A new set has been appointed 
to examine all the books which have been sent into circulation 
since 1791- These make extraordinary prohibitions. Almost 
all French books written, lately before, or since the revolu- 
tion, are proscribed ; and the greater part of the new German 
works are included in the same condemnation. The court of 
St. Petersburg has lately published an edict similar in object and 
severity j and which must prevent the people from knowing by 
the press a single thing which the government does not wish 
2 



Reformation of Luther, gi 

But the efforts of men cannot for ever counter- 
act the course of nature. It was necessary that 
the morning should re-appear; that day should 
follow; and throw its rays upon the phantom of the 
night; the object at once of the scorn and admi- 
ration of men. The university of Paris already 
had daughters worthy of her in Germany and in 
England. That of Wittemberg, where Luther 
and Melanchton began their career as professors, 
had been lately founded. Sovereigns inspired by 
the genius of the times, by the love of glory, 
and the captivating splendour of learning, a thing 

them to know. Among other articles,, all works relating to re- 
ligion, must, previous to publication, be examined and approved 
of by a censorship composed of members of the established 
church. All journals, and even the hand-bills of the theatres, 
must undergo a similar scrutiny. Bonaparte, who reigns by 
terror over the French press, and would send to Cayenne who- 
ever should utter a syllable displeasing to him, has established 
the strongest regulations to prevent the introduction into France 
of the Journals printed on the German side of the Rhine ; and 
of every work which may be suspected of passing any censure 
upon the nature or measures of his government. In this 
country, this is undoubtedly not the system which our free con- 
stitution permits to be adopted j and the diffusion of knowledge 
here is generally in a high degree free and unrestrained. Eveiy 
one, however, has fresh in his memory certain remarkable ex- 
ceptions, which it is not necessary to specify; any thing similar 
to which it is probable will never be seen again, and which 
happened at no very distant period - } a period that may be termed 
the reign of terror in this island. 



Q2 Spirit and Influence of the 

as yet so new, encouraged its revival by similar 
establishments. It became impracticable to im- 
pose silence upon so many schools, which laboured 
to render themselves more illustrious, the one 
than the other. The ancient languages, history, 
and criticism, were taught in them publicly in 
spite of the ckmours of the partisans of ignorance. 
Science at last escaped from her state of tutelage, 
and broke by degrees her ancient covenant with 
error. The commerce with distant countries, the 
discovery of a new world, had disposed men for 
the reception of new ideas. The art of printing, 
that inestimable blessing to the human race, and 
the greatest gift which mind ever received from 
the hands, had been lately invented in Germany 
on the banks of the Rhine, diffused light with 
extraordinary efficacy, and prevented the possi- 
bility of its being ever again shut up under a 
bushel. At the other extremity of Germany, on 
the banks of the Vistula, Copernicus had reformed 
the doctrine of the celestial motions, and explained 
their real order, which the bulls of Popes have 
not since been able to alter. When we consider 
the first years of this sixteenth century, it is im- 
possible not to regard it as one of the most decisive 
in respect to the progress and amelioration of our 
species. 

During this first conflict between light and 
darkness, each party confirmed and strengthened 



Reformation of Luther, 93 

itself in its own opinion, and made preparation for 
a decisive action. At the head of the party of li- 
terature, the public voice had placed the modest 
and ingenious Erasmus of Rotterdam. His 
pointed satires against the excesses of the 
clergy, and the stupidity of the monks, had made 
a deep impression. He contributed powerfully to 
revive the taste for ancient literature and criticism. 
Reuchlin, who had attained great eminence in 
philology,, and had taught in almost every part of 
Europe, was at this time settled in Germany, his 
native country, and excited there a great enthu- 
siasm for the study of the languages, especially 
the Greek and Hebrew, for the perusal of the 
sacred books in the original tongues, and for the 
critical exposition of the bible. The theological 
inquisitors of Cologne, among others, the boiste- 
rous Hochstraten, who had solicited and obtained 
an imperial edict to burn and exterminate all 
Hebrew books, sought a quarrel with Reuchlin, 
and wanted to prove that the study of Greek, as 
well as of Hebrew, was of pernicious influence on 
faith.* Perhaps they had reason, in their own 

* Even the faculty of theology at Paris declared at this time 
before the parliament assembled, That religion was undone, if 
the study of Greek and Hebrew was permitted. The mendicant 
, monks held another language. Observe the expressions of one 
of those common soldiers of Hochstraten's army. Conrad of 
Heresbach, a very grave and respectable author of that period, 



g4 Spirit and Influence of the 

sense; and every kind of study was in truth dan- 
gerous to the inquisition, and to the power which 
hired such auxiliaries. At any rate the dispute 
excited prodigious attention ; and ended by co- 
vering with shame the patrons of ignorance. The 
Hebraists triumphed. Ulrich de Hutten, a young 
gentleman of Franconia, ardent, and full of ge- 
nius, a soldier, a poet, a learned man, and even 
a theologian, wrote on this occasion the celebrated 
" Letters of Obscure Men," EpistoUe obscurorum 
virorum, a keen and well-directed satyr, which 
poured on the opposite party irresistible ridicule. 

Such is the great outline of the picture of Eu- 
rope at the era of the Reformation, as well in 
what relates to politics, as in what relates to reli- 
gion, and the culture of the mind. 

REFORMATION. 
Catholicism was not a religion given, after its 
complete formation, to nations previously un- 

thus relates the monk's own words. " They have invented a 
new language, which they call Greek : you must be carefully 
on your guard against it : it is the mother of all heresy. I ob- 
serve in the hands of many persons a book written in that lan- 
guage, and which they call the N*u Testament. It is a book 
fall of daggers and poison. As to the Hebrew, my dear bre- 
thren, it is certain that all those who learn it become instanta- 
neously Jews." This is a sample of the Papal spirit dmyng that 
age. Was it good and expedient to allow it peaceably to pro- 
ceed in this manner ? Author. 



Reformation of Luther. §5 

acquainted with it, among which it might assume 
an uniform appearance. Christianity, introduced 
at different times, into very different countries, 
had received in each a local modification, arising 
from the character and circumstances of the 
people. Thus, the language of the Romans, 
introduced into several parts of the empire, in 
one place met with the language of the Goths 
and Lombards, in another with that of the Celts 
and Teutones, in others with the Gallic, the 
Saxon, and even the Arabic at last, and hence by 
degrees was changed into the Italian, French, 
English, and Spanish. Christianity itself, after 
its gradual transmutation into Romish Catholicism, 
essentially altered by the innovations of the court 
of Rome, of monks, and theologians, did not 
every where experience the same variations. Re- 
taining the fundamental similitude of the principal 
dogmas, it obtained in different places a different 
physiognomy. Thus, even in our own days, the 
Catholicism of Madrid does not in all respects 
resemble that of Paris, any more than that of 
Rome does that of Vienna. In one place it had 
acquired a more superstitious complexion, a form 
more gross, more material, more calculated to 
stifle the spirit ; in another, it was less confined 
with material bonds, and had preserved a stronger 
tendency towards mysticism : the spirit remained 
more free, and more distinguishable. These va- 



§6 Spirit and Iiifluence of the 

rieties in the character of this religion proceeded 
from varieties in the character of the nations; 
here more sensual, more dissipated, more external; 
there, on the contrary, more contemplative, more 
grave, and' more collected. Italy on the one 
side, and Saxony on the other, will afford us an 
example of that diversity; and it is natural to 
make choice of those two countries, since the 
one was the seat of Catholicism, and the other 
became that of the Reformation. 

Italy had long been the residence of the masters 
of the Roman empire. The luxury and corruption 
of Asia had passed into the city of the C&sars, 
and overrun the rest of the country. The riches 
of the whole world there circulated and overflowed. 
The effeminacy of the latter years of the empire 
stamped the Italian character. Subdued afterwards 
by a multitude of conquerors, who succeeded one 
another incessantly, that fine country was, during 
ten centuries, the field of continual wars, waged 
there by strangers, who contended for its pos- 
session. The Italian, never his own master, 
always oppressed, subdued, became naturally art- 
ful, selfish, and deceitful. Commerce still contU 
nued to enrich him; but he hasted to consume in 
pleasure what he foresaw that violence might 
speedily wrest from him. A taste for luxury, 
pomp, sensuality, and the fine-arts, was the source 
of his consolation. The magnificence of. the* 



Reformation of Luther. Q7 

ancient remains with which he was surrounded, 
had an influence on that which he gave to all his 
works, and to all his religious edifices. Worship 
became. an affair of the senses, religion a mytho- 
logy. Pompous ceremonies usurped the place of 
simple prayers; saints and images became the 
suppliants of a Deity almost forgotten, and the 
immediate objects of devotion. Such is the aspect 
under which religion presented itself to the Italian 
from his birth. The essential spirit of that reli- 
gion was extinct with regard to him. No doubt 
the multitude, and ordinary men, adhered very 
stedfastly to this system of superstition which 
captivated their senses, and lulled their consci- 
ences under vice. But what wonder if he who 
proceeded to think and examine rejected at 
once, without any reservation, that whole system, 
in which he could see nothing but the handy 
w T ork of man, and remained without any shadow 
of religion whatsoever? The Italian then was al- 
most unavoidably a papist, or an atheist, a wor- 
shipper of our Lady of Loretto, or a worshipper 
of nothing. Never accordingly were there so 
many atheists as in the country and neighbourhood 
of the sovereign pontiffs.* 

* Add to this the causes of the Italian impiety and corrup- 
tion assigned by Machiavel, an eye-witness, and a man who 
will be allowed to possess sufficient sagacity to perceive the 
sources of the evil. He expresses himself in the following 

H 



98 Spirit and Influence of the 

The most extravagant bigotry, or the liberti- 
nism of unbelief, is the necessary lot of those 
who cannot adopt the whole of their religion, and 
who are unable to discover its spirit. " When 
they throw the bathing water out of the window," 
as the ancient proverb says, " they throw the 
child along with it." A Reformation of religion 
was impracticable in that country. Those who 
were good Catholics would not have endured the* 
removal of a single relic; the rest were nothing, 
conformed to the exterior practice, but remained 
indifferent to all moral and religious interest, to 
all desire of improvement, which it belonged not 
to them either to conceive or to credit* 

manner : " The strongest proof of the approaching ruin of 
Christianity, is to see that the nearer people are to Rome, 
which is the capital of Christianity, the less religion they 
have.** The scandalous example, and the crimes of the 
court of Rome, have been the cause that Italy has lost entirely 
all the principles of piety, and every sentiment of religion.* ** 
We Italians then owe this important obligation to the church 
and to priests, that we have become reprobates and villains." 
Disc, on the first Decade of Livy. B. f. c. 12. Author. 

* The Italians proved sufficiently by the fact that they were 
altogether incapable of a Reformation. Some years before 
Luther, the ardent Savonarola preached at Florence nearly the 
same doctrine which was afterwards preached by the Reformer 
of Saxony, in regard to indulgences and the misconduct of 
the Papal court, &zc. The infamous Alexander the VI was 
then on the throne. Far from declaring themselves in favour 
of Savonarola, as the people of Wittemberg declared in favour 



Reformation of Luther. 99 

What a different aspect did Saxony present? 
Its people had never been enervated, either by 

of Luther, those of Florence fell upon the unfortunate man, 
too good for his age and his country, dragged hirn to the pile 
lighted by the inquisitorial hangmen, and saw him burnt, 
uttering shouts of joy, and crying out long live Pope 
Borgia. Author. 

Almost every man who has had any opportunity of conversing 
with persons who had been educated Roman Catholics has had 
occasion to make this remark ; That they are either bigots, ig- 
norantly attached to ever)' rag and tatter of the holy mother, 
and have never thought but of reverencing implicitly as they 
had been taught to reverence; or if they have inquired at all, 
and allowed themselves to believe their own reason that ab- 
surdity and nonsense is absurdity ana nonsense; then they have 
formed this conclusion that Christianity is absurdity and non- 
sense. So strongly blended in their minds is the idea of 
Christianity itself with all the appendages of Catholicism, that 
they cannot separate them. Their education is strongly calcu- 
lated to produce this effect. They have never been taught to 
inquire into the evidence of their religion, or to analyse it, to 
examine its several parts, and to consider their reasonableness 
and importance Persons who have been accustomed to do 
this, if they find oae thing which cannot bear examination, 
proceed on to another, and examine every thing apart, before 
they think of rejecting the whole. But persons who have 
been educated as Catholics have been trained to take every 
thing respecting religion upon authority, and in the lump; 
they have always considered it as a system founded upon the 
assertion of others ; every part of which must stand or fall with 
the rest. When the progress of their knowledge therefore 
compels them to see the weakness of this authority, and the 
deformity of the superstructure as it stands, they tuna their 
H 2 



100 Spirit and Influence of the 

luxury and opulence, or by too soft a climate. 
There, lived a native, frank, and manly race, 
who, till the ninth century of our era, had never 
been subdued. They had stopped on the banks 
of the Elbe the flight of the Roman eagle, which 
was unable to penetrate into their country. At a 

backs upon it directly, as wholly dangerous and disgusting. 
The only ground of belief on which they had ever been in- 
structed to rest their faith being removed, it is extremely na- 
tural they should take it for granted there is no other ; and 
resign all further concern about the matter. This is unques- 
tionably the reason that philosophers and men of inquiry in 
France, and in other parts of the continent, have been much 
more commonly infidels than in this country. It is remarkable 
also that the two most celebrated infidels we have had in this 
country, Hume and Gibbon, had spent a great part of their 
youth in France, and were intoxicated with the vanity of 
imitating Frenchmen. This too is unquestionably one great 
cause of that laxity of principle which we compbin is found in 
a great number of Irishmen, of all the classes above the lowest, 
who, if they have been Roman Catholics are pretty sure to be 
unbelievers. This is no reason for reviling and abusing such 
persons. They have been placed in very unhappy circum- 
stances, with regard to this most important object; circum- 
stances to which it is presumable, from an extensive experience, 
that human nature is very seldom superior. But it is a strong 
reason for endeavouring to set the distinction between Christi- 
anity, and the abuses of Christianity, in the strongest light. 
This we conceive the present work of M. Villers has no feeble 
tendency to accomplish : and yet it is abused by many persons, 
even in this country, who may be thought to mean well with 
regard to Christianity, but who certainly know little of the 
means of promoting its interests. 



Reformation of Luther. 101 

later period that nation bad given conquerors to 
Europe. The Angles, the Normans, the Bur- 
gundians, the Franks, swarms which issued from 
Saxony, proceeded to subdue Great Britain, Gaul, 
and the other provinces of the west. Those who 
remained on their ancient soil, attached to their 
national, ancient, and simple worship had allowed 
the rest of Europe to embrace Christianity, with- 
out offering any attempt at imitation, or to quit a 
faith in which was incorporated the memory of 
the great actions of their fathers. When Charle- 
magne, after a desperate resistance of thirty years^ 
prevailed to make them receive Christianity, they 
embraced it heartily, and with good faith. But 
among them it is easy to conceive that it never 
would become what it was among the Italians. 
It there less enchanted the eyes, but it more 
touched the heart. In Italy it was more worship, 
in Saxony more religion. Men of staid minds, 
and of generally sound morals, naturally practised 
a Christianity more pure, more composed of spirit. 
They always supported with a secret impatience 
the heavy yoke which the court of Rome imposed 
upon them, and embraced the first occasion which 
offered to escape from it. But when they threw 
away this false crust which had grown over the 
Gospel, they retained the Gospel. They had not 
extinguished its spirit. Popery was not to them 
the whole of religion. It was still of importance 



102 Spirit and Influence of the 

to them to have a religion. An interest in reli- 
gious concerns was still living, and active within 
them. They were fitted for a Reformation. 

The intellectual culture of the two people dif- 
fered in the same degree. The fine arts, all that 
ministers to the gratification of taste, all that 
yields indulgence either to the bodily or mental 
sensibility, had become the object of Italian in- 
dustry. The calm, regular, durable activity of 
the Saxons was directed towards the abstract 
sciences, towards philosophy, and historical re- 
search. When the Reformation broke out there 
was not a theologian in Italy of talents to enter 
the lists with those of Saxony. Some had the 
presumption to venture themselves, and exhibited 
the usual connection between presumption and 
ignorance. They were beaten and covered with 
confusion. On the other side Italy boasted with 
justice of her poets and painters. She had not 
produced a Luther. But Saxony had not produced 
an Ariosto. 

To the particular sentiments which we have 
pointed out Saxony further added that indignation 
and dissatisfaction which were common to it with 
the rest of Europe. To provide for the expences 
of a gaut ] y court Leo X had just imposed on 
Christendom the heavy impost of a new indul- 
gence. The pretext was the erection of the su- 
perb basilicon of St. Peter, But a proof that 



Reformation of Luther. 103 

this was not the sole motive at least, is, that Leo 
had beforehand made a present to a sister of whom 
he was very fond, of all the money which should 
be raised in Lower Saxony as far as the Baltic sea. 
This circumstance was known to all the world; 
and the monk Tetzel had the audacity to come 
into the neighbourhood of Wittemberg to. open 
his traffic of indulgences, to publish his prostitute 
mission, and support it with sermons of an extra- 
vagance and grossness which at present it is 
difficult to believe.* 



* " One Tetzel, a Dominican, and a retailer of indulgences, 
had picked up a vast sum at Leipsic. A gentleman of that city, 
who had no veneration for such superstitions, went to Tetzel, 
and asked him, if he could sell him an indulgence before-hand 
for a certain crime, which he would not specify, and which he 
intended to commit. Tetzel said, Yes; provided they could 
agree upon the price. The bargain was struck, the money 
paid, and the absolution delivered in due form. Soon after this, 
the gentleman, knowing that Tetzel was going from Leipsic 
well loaded with cash, way-layed him, robbed him, and cud- 
gelled him ; and told him at parting, that this was the crime 
for which he had purchased an absolution. George, duke of 
Saxony, a zealous friend to the court of Rome, hearing of this 
robbery, at first was very angry; but, being informed of the/ 
whole story, he laughed heartily, and forgave the criminal. 

*' The emperor Maximilian, being at Inspruck, was so 
offended at the wickedness and impudence of this Tetzel, who 
had been convicted of adultery, that he intended to have him 
seized upon, and put in a bag, and flung into the river -, and 
would have done it, if he had not been hindered by the solici- 



104 Spirit and Influence of the 

Martin Luther, a doctor in divinity, a priest, 
and a monk of the order of St. Augustin, was at 
that time a professor of philosophy and theology 
in the new university of Wittemberg, in which 
was cultivated a severe spirit of industry, of love 
to science, to true religion, and to liberty of 
thought. The parents of Luther were poor. His 
talents alone had raised him to the situation which 
he held. He had been among the very foremost 
to devote himself with ardour tp those new studies 
which were prosecuted by the most eminent 
geniuses of the age. As the first rays of the sun, 
before he rises, gild the tops of the highest 
mountains, Luther perceived, before the multi- 
tude, the day which was beginning to dawn. 
With the whole force of his intellectual powers 
he had embraced the cause of reviving literature, 
followed its progress, and hailed the victory which 
the partisans of the ancient languages gained over 
the inquisitors of Cologne. He had even illus- 
trated his own name by some writings of the 
same nature. By the aid of indefatigable zeal, 
and a prodigious memory, he had rendered him- 
self invincible in the knowledge of the scriptures, 
of the fathers, and other ecclesiastical antiquities. 
One of his principal objects was to overthrow the 

tations of Frederic Elector of Saxony, who happened to be 
there, very opportunely for Tetzel." Jortins Life of Erasmus. 

5 



Reformation of Luther. 105 

Scholastic philosophy, by banishing Aristotle from 
the domains of theology, and proving to what 
a degree, in that strange mixture of the logic of 
the pagan philosopher with the doctrine of Chris- 
tianity, the first had been misunderstood, and 
both corrupted. He exposed the partisans of that 
philosophy, in all their contests, both by argu- 
ment and raillery ; and covered their science with 
confusion and ridicule. His personal character, 
of which the influence on the Reformation has 
been so great, was energy and uprightness. 
Ardent and calm, haughty and humble at the 
same time. Irritable, intemperate in his language 
when provoked by injuries; mi id arid averse to all 
violence in his actions. Jovial ^ open, full of 
pleasantry, and even a good companion at the 
tables of the great; studious, sober, and a master 
of self-denial in private. Courageous, and disin- 
terested, he could expose himself coolly to the 
most imminent danger in support of what he 
considered the truth. Summoned to appear before 
the Diet of Worms, he presented himself, not- 
withstanding the recent and terrible example of 
John Huss, with dignity and simplicity. Far 
from braving Rome, at the beginning, he wrote 
with submission to the Pope ; and manifested no 
other superiority but that of his vast knowledge 
over Cajetan, and the other theologians deputed 
by Rome to convert him. Harassed afterwards 



10(3 Spirit and Influence of the 

by gross and violent abuse, he replied to it with 
animation ; and being excommunicated by the 
Pope, he threw the anathematizing bull into the 
fire. Luther knew all the intrinsic weakness, 
and the corruption of the pontifical court. He 
had been deputed to Rome on the affairs of his 
order some years before, and there every thing 
which struck his eyes filled his heart with indig- 
nation. It is not a little probable that at that 
very time he formed, if not the design, at least 
the wish, of delivering his country ; and, like 
his ancient countryman Arminius, who had served 
in the Roman legions in Italy before he expelled 
those legions from Germany, it was at Rome that 
he had learned to despise Rome, which at a dis- 
tance appeared so formidable. By such charac- 
teristics it is impossible not to discover one of 
those superior minds, which, participating, as 
they may, in the defects of their age, are formed 
to direct, and to carry it along with them in the 
road of improvement. I will yet add, that after 
having refused the offers of the court of Rome, 
after having been the founder, and for so many 
years as it were the patriarch of a new church, 
after having been the friend, the counsellor, the 
spiritual father of so many princes, whom the 
Reformation enriched with all the wealth of the 
clergy, and of which he might have appropriated 
to himself an important part, Luther lived and 



Reformation of Luther. 107 

died in a state bordering upon poverty, and be- 
queathed to his wife and children only the respect 
due to his name. 

Such a man as this must necessarily have burned 
with indignation at the approach of the shameless 
Tetzel. In the sermons which he was accus- 
tomed to deliver, Luther exposed the abuse of the 
traffic of indulgences, the danger which lay in 
believing that heaven and the pardon of all sins 
could be purchased by money, while sincere re- 
pentance, and an amendment of life, were the 
only means of appeasing the Divine justice. The 
monk replied with fury to those sermons. Luther 
answered; went a step further; called in question 
the authority of the Pope; and gave the signal of 
revolt. Thus began the Reformation.* It found 

* It is well known with what fury the rage of party pours 
out calumny upon eminent men. Upon Luther, above all 
men, it has been discharged in torrents. Among other causes, 
it has been found out that his zeal arose only from the discontent 
of the Augustins, who beheld, it is said, with envy the Do- 
minicans invested by the Pope with the commission of preach- 
ing indulgences. That Maimbourg should have picked up 
such a story; is nothing wonderful. But it is inconceivable 
that Voltaire and Hume have repeated it as a certain fact, (a J 

Long ere now, that commission had become so odious and so 
contemptible, that nobody, and least of all men Luther, could 
envy the Dominicans an account of it, who, besides, were in 
almost exclusive possession of those indulgences, as they were 
of the inquisition. Doctor Maclaine has subjoined to his Eng- 
}ish translation of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History (Vol. L 



]0S Spirit and bifluence of the 

a multitude of minds prepared for its reception, 
and also some enlightened and eloquent men dis- 

c. 2) a note, in which he proves beyond dispute the absurdity of 
this imputation. It was not useless to refer to it here, 
where it has been thought necessary to disclose the real 
sources of the Reformation, for assistance in forming a sounder 
judgment of its nature and influence. Author. 

(a) The credit of Voltaire is now so low in this country, 
that no means, however base, of forwarding a favourite ob- 
ject will be thought beneath him. He is now detected) and 
his authority is of very little value. But Hume, who through 
the whole course of his history lies in wait for an opportunity of 
throwing discredit upon the cause both of religion and of 
liberty, who possessed a rooted enmity against all the best in- 
terests of mankind, and whose actions exhibit more of delibe- 
rate misanthropy than those of any other man perhaps that ever 
lived, still enjoys a reputation and authority which, he by no 
means deserves j and his writings contribute strongly to corrupt 
the public sentiments. The note below of Dr. Machine, (b) re- 
ferred to by Villers, which we have thought of sufficient im- 
portance to quote, is a full exposure, more full perhaps than was 
necessary* of one of those instances of bad faith with which 
his history abounds. If any one were to publish an edition of 
his history with notes, pointing out die eagerness with which 
he has used not only lawful but poisoned arms against religion 
and liberty, exposing the unrounded assertions, the weak re- 
flections, and the barbarous phraseology which he so often em- 
ploys, he would abate that false admiration so long attached to 
his works, and confer a great obligation upon the public. 

(b) e< Dr. MosiiEiMhas taken no notice of the calumnies 
invented and propagated by some late authors, in order to make 
Luther's zealous opposition to the publication of Indulgences 
appear to be the effect of sein»h and ignoble motives. It may 



Reformation of Luther. log 

posed to become its apostles. The learned and 
moderate Melancthon, and the inconsiderate 



not, therefore, be improper to set that in a true light ; not that 
the cause of the Reformation (which mast stand by its own in- 
trinsic dignity, and is in no way affected by the views or cha- 
racters of its instruments) can derive any strength from this in- 
quiry, but as it may tend to vindicate the personal character of 
a man, who has done eminent service to the cause of religion. 

" Mr. Hume, in his History of the Reign of Henry VIII 
has thought proper to repeat what the enemies of the Re- 
formation, and some of its dubious or ill-informed friends, have 
advanced, with respect to the motives that engaged Luther 
to oppose the doctrine of indulgences. This elegant and per- 
suasive historian tells us, that the Austin friars had usually 
been employed in Saxony to preach Indulgences, and from this 
trust had derived both profit and consideration ; that Arcem- 
boldi gave this occupation to the Dominicans *; that Martin 
Luther, an Austin friary professor in the university of Wit- 
temberg, resenting the affront put upon his 
Order, began to preach against the abuses that were committed 
in the sale of indulgences, and, being provoked by opposition, 
proceeded even to decry indulgences themselves ,f It were to be 
wished, that Mr. Hume's candor had engaged him to examine 
this accusation better, before he had ventured to repeat it. 
For, in the first place, it is not true, that the Austin friars had 
been usually employed in Saxony to preach indulgences. It is 
well known, that the commission had been offered alternately, 
and sometimes jointly, to all the Mendicants, whether Austin 
friars, Dominicans, Franciscans, or Carmelites. Nay, from 

* Hume's History of England, under the House of Tudor, 
vol. i.p. 119. 
+ Id. lb. p. 120. 



110 Spirit and Influence of the 

Carlstadt, both at Wittemberg ; Zainglius in 
Switzerland, and Calvin in France, soon arose, 

the year 1229, that lucrative commission was principally in- 
trusted with the Dominicans;* and in the records, which relate 
to indulgences, we rarely meet with the name of an Austin 
friar, and not one single act by which it appears that the Roman 
pontiff ever named the friars of that Order to the office under 
consideration. More particularly it is remarkable, that, for 
half a century before Luther (i. e. from 1450 to 1517,) 
during which period indulgences were sold with the most 
scandalous marks of avaricious extortion and impudence, we 
scarcely meet with the name of an Austin friar employed it 
that service j if we except a monk, named Palzius, who was 
no more than an underling of the papal questor Raymond 
Per aldus ; so far is it from being true, that the Augustine 
order were exclusively, or even usually, employed in that 
service. + Mr. Hume has built his assertion upon the sole au- 
thority of a single expression of Paul Sarpi, which has 
been abundantly refuted by De Priero, Pallavicini and 
Graveson, the mortal enemies of Luther. — But it may be 
alleged, that, even supposing it was not usual to employ the 
Augustin friars alone in the propagation of indulgences, yet 
Luther might be offended at seeing such an important com- 
mission given to the Dominicans exclusively, and that, conse- 
quently, this was his motive in opposing the propagation of 
indulgences. To shew the injustice of this allegation, I observe 
" Secondly, That in the time of Luther, the preaching of 
indulgences was become such an odious and unpopular matter, 

* See Weismanni Memorabilia Historic Sacrce N. T.p. 1051, 
1115. 

+ See Harpii Dissertat. de Nonnullis Indulge ntiarum, Scec. 
ssiv et xv. QuosstQiibuSj p. 384, SS7* 



Reformation of Luther. Ill 

and introduced their particular views into the bu- 
siness of the Reformation. The great bulk of 

that it- is far from being probable, that Luther would have 
been solicitous about obtaining such a commission either for 
himself or for his Order. The princes of Europe, with many- 
bishops and multitudes of learned and pious men, had opened 
their eyes upon the turpitude of this infamous traffic ; and even 
the Franciscans and Dominicans, towards the conclusion of the 
fifteenth century, opposed it publicly, both in their discourses 
and in their writings.'* Nay more, the very commission 
which is supposed to have excited the envy of Luther,, was 
offered by Leo to the general of the Fransciscans, and was re- 
fused both by him and his Order, t who gave it over entirely to 
Albert bishop of Mentz and Magdeburg. Is it then to be 
imagined, that either Luther or the other Austin friars aspired 
after a commission of which the Fransciscans were ashamed ? 
Besides, it is a mistake to affirm, that this office was given ta 
the Dominicans in general; since it was given to Tetzel 
alone, an individual member of that order, who had been no- 
torious for his profligacy, barbarity, and extortion. 

" But that neither resentment nor envy were the motives that 
led Luther to oppose the doctrine and publication of indul- 
gences will appear with the utmost evidence, if we consider in 
the Third place, — That he was never accused of any such mo- 
tives either in the edicts of the pontiffs of his time; or amidst 
the other reproaches of the contemporary writers, who de- 
fended the cause of Rome, and who were far from being sparing 
of their invectives and calumnies. All the contemporary ad- 
versaries of Luther are absolutely silent on this head. From 

* See Walch. Opp. Luther, torn. xv. p. 114, 283, 312, 340, 
e—Seckendorf, Hist. Luther anismi, lib. %. sect. vi. p. 13. 
t See Walch. he, cit.p. 37 1. 



112 Spirit and Influence of (he 

the German nation, which ought not to be con- 
founded with the preponderance of certain go- 

the year 1517 to 1546, when the dispute about indulgences 
was carried on with the greatest warmth and animosity, net one 
writer evef ventured to reproach Luther with these ignoble 
mot'ves of opposition now under consideration. I speak not of 
Erasmus Slfides, De Thou, Guiccardixi, and 
others, whose testimony might be perhaps suspected of parti- 
ality in his favour; but I speak of Cajetan, Hogstr at. De 
Prierio, Emser, and even the infamous John Tetzel, 
whom Luther opposed with such vehemence and bitterness. 
Even Cochljeus was silent on this head during the life of 
Luther ; though, after the death ot that great Reformer, he 
broached the calumny I am here refuting. But such was the 
scandalous character of this man, who was notorious for fraud, 
calumny, lying, and their sister-vices,* that P^llavicixi, 
Eossuet, and other enemies of Luther, were ashamed to 
make use either of his name or testimony. Now, may it not 
be fairly presumed, that the contemporaries of Luther were 
better judges of his character and the principles from which he- 
acted, than those who lived in after-times? Can it be imagined, 
that motives to action, which escaped the prying eyes of 
Luther's contemporaries, should have discovered themselves 
to us who live at such a distance of time from the scene of 
action, to M. Bossuet, to Mr. Hume, and to other abettors 
of this ill-contrived and foolish story ? Either there are no roles 
of moral -evidence, or Mr. Hume's asseriion is entirely 
groundless . 

" I might add many other considerations to shew the unrea- 
sonableness of supposing that Luther exposed himself to the 

* Slcidan, Ds Statu RlI. et Kelp, in Dcdic. Epist. ad August . 
Elector. 



Reformation of Luther. 113 

vernments, as that of Austria, &c. the greater 
part of Switzerland, a prodigious number of 
persons in France, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, 
Sweden, England, separated in a few years ft om 
the Romish church, and refused all obedience as 
well as all tribute to its head. 

Yet, notwithstanding the general sentiments 
above described, notwithstanding the cause uni- 
versally felt for a reform in the church, notwith- 
standing the eloquence and -energy of Luther; 
that memorable revolution would certainly not 
have been confirmed, it would not have required 
a political consolidation, if another consideration 
than that of religion and truth had not lent its 
assistance, and made of it an interest of etate. 
The princes of the north of Europe, to whom, 
with their ordinary means, resistance against the 
ambition of Austria became almost impossible, 
beheld in the new enthusiasm of their pebple a 
source opened wdience they could draw extraordi- 
nary assistance. By means of this they were 
enabled to oppose the whole mass of their subjects 
against the^ imperial arms. An intimate union 

rage of the Roman pontiff, to the persecutions of an exasperated 
clergy, to the severity of such a potent and despotic prince as 
Charles V, to death itself, and that from a principle of ava- 
rice and ambition. But I have said enough to satisfy every 
candid mind." Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Cent, 16, 
Sec. 1, . 2. 

T 



1 14 Spirit and Influence of the 

between every prince and his people, between the 
whole of those provinces and those people, which 
before would have been a chimerical enterprise, 
became a necessary effect of that common interest 
which spoke to all hearts. Beside. the tempta- 
tion offered by the riches of the clergy, which 
every prince conveyed into his exchequer, that of 
independence, and the gratification of an inve- 
terate resentment against the court of Rome, all 
contributed to enforce the concurrence of rulers, 
and to carry them along in the same stream with 
the people. Whatever may have been their mo- 
tives in the end, it cannot be disputed that the 
league of Smalcald exhibits, in modern Europe, 
the first efficacious union of free states against 
their oppressors; that the foundation was there 
laid ot^ a better policy, and the rights of consci- 
ence were ascertained. Several of the reasons 
have already been enumerated which might in- 
duce Charles the V to oppose the Reformation. 
Indeed it was enough for him to see it embraced 
by the princes of whom he was the natural enemy. 
Francis the first might have declared in its favour, 
and have introduced it into France. His conduct 
was influenced partly by his own religious convic- 
tion, and partly by his politics and his views on 
Italy. But seeing a formidable party formed in 
the empire against the Austrian, his rival, he se- 
conded them efficaciously, and with all his power. 



Reformation of Luther. 115 

This is not the place for entering into the detail 
of the events which accompanied* succeeded, and 
consolidated that memorable revolution. The 
Institute, besides, has not required an account of 
the progress, but of the consequences of the 
Reformation. Let it suffice then to say that this 
great affair occupied almost entirely all the powers 
of Europe from the year J 520 to the middle of 
the next century. Through various turns of for- 
tune, triumphs, defeats, alliances, defections, the 
Protestant states were at last enabled to give a 
constitutional existence to their faith, and to di- 
vide the Empire with Catholicism. While Luther 
lived he supported the character- of a minister of 
peace, and employed all his authority in preserving 
it. The civil war of the peasants of Swabia and 
Franconia disturbed the first years of the Refor- 
mation. Sects of fanatics arose in several places, 
but chiefly in the circle of Burgundy and West- 
phalia. The short reign of the anabaptists of 
Munster, and of their leader, John of Ley den, 
presented a scene of horrid disorders. The Pro- 
testants beheld with grief the enormities of these 
false brethren. Luther and Melancthon wrote 
against them ; and demonstrated that those ex- 
cesses were as opposite to Christianity as to the 
true spirit of the Reformation. After a peace, 
almost uninterrupted, under four emperors who 
succeeded Charlemagne, down through the whole 

12 



1 1 6 Spirit and hifuence of the 

of the fifteenth century, and some of the first 
years- of the sixteenth, the war which was kindled 
under Ferdinand the second, on the 'subject of 
the religious capitulations of Bohemia, was soon 
converted into a furious contest-between the two 
parties, for nothing less than the entire extiroa- 
tion of Protestantism, the annihilation of the 
German constitution and liberties, and the abso- 
lute dominion of Austria over the empire, which 
would have furnished it with the means of ex- 

a tending {hat dominion further. This terrible 
•conflagration, which ravaged Europe for thirty 
years together, from the confines of Poland to the 
mouth of the Scheld, and from the banks of the 
Po to the Baltic sea, depopulated whole provinces, 
annihilated in them agriculture, commerce, in- 

N dustry, cost several millions of men their lives, 
and retarded in Germany for more than a century 
the study oi the sciences, which at first had there 
made so much progress.* Twelve years of this 

* We regard the sciences, and even polite literature, as 
having only very lately begun to be cultivated in Germany j 
and Germany is supposed to be considerably behind at least 
England and France in the pursuits of literature. We accuse 
the Germans of having spent all their rime in heavy commen- 
taries on the classics 5 instead of exhibiting the efforts of genius, 
or entering into the experimental examination of the material or 
intellectual worlds. Yet the Germans entered with uncommon 
ardour into the efforts ernployed ; for the restoration of letters; 
and their progress, at that early period, suffered not in compa- 



Reformation of Luther. • i\J 

destructive war had passed; and the confederated 
princes, notwithstanding the prodigies of con- 
stancy and valour which they displayed, were on 
the point of sinking under their potent adversary, 
when a hero, the successor of Vasa, the immortal 
Gustavus Adolphus, quitted his kingdom at the 
head of an invincible army, and marched to save, 
at the expence of his own life, which he lost in 
the midst of victory at Lutzen, the liberty of 
Germany, perhaps of all Europe, and the faith 
which he held in common with the other princes 
of the evangelical league ; such was the name 
assumed by those who had separated from the 
Romish communion. Denmark, which had be- 

rison with that even of the most forward nations. The causes 
here mentioned by Villers truly account for that long stagnation 
which - Germany has experienced. They afford the solution of 
a question which every one must have put to himself with re- 
gard to the seeming contradiction between the early aptitude 
which the Germans exhibited for the finest efforts of literature, 
and their slow progress afterwards. The cause was not in the 
Germans, but in the circumstances of Germany ; and those 
circumstances were in a principal manner produced by the 
noble resolution which Germany first adopted of procuring to 
herself liberty of conscience, and by the terrible conflicts and 
disturbances in which that glorious determination involved her. 
It is singular that to Germany we owe almost all the more re- 
markable inventions and transactions by which modern times 
are distinguished, the art of printing, gunpowder, the mari- 
ner's compass, and the Preformation of Luther. 



118- Spirit and Influence of the 

fore interfered in the quarrel, was soon obliged to 
slacken her pace. The aid of Sweden was more 
efficacious. It is doubtful if the military annals 
of any nation present a period more worthy of 
admiration than the eighteen campaigns of the 
Swedish army in Germany. France also joined 
her victorious arms to those of the Swedes in 
support of the Protestant party. It was during 
the course of this war that the names of Gue- 
briant, Puysegur, Turenne and Conde, were ren- 
dered illustrious; and it was by this war that the 
monarchs of France began to acquire a visible 
preponderance in the affairs of the empire. 

Meanwhile France herself was not exempt from 
the troubles and internal commotions which flow 
from revolutions of such magnitude. After an 
obstinate civil war between the reformed and 
Catholic parties, the monarchy was vested in the 
person of a reformed prince, who, however, be- 
came Catholic when he ascended the throne, 
Spain, since the time of Charles the V, had 
been governed by her own kings, who still enjoyed 
the sovereignty of the Low Countries. But the 
spirit of the Reformation had there introduced its 
ally, the spirit of liberty. The United Provinces 
courageously threw off the yoke of Philip the 
Second, and founded in their marshes a confede~ 
racy nearly resembling that which had been 



Reformation of Luther. lig 

formed on the mountains of Helvetia.* The 
Dutch became, what a free people in the neigh- 

* The effects of the Reformation, in creating bolder and more 
generous sentiments of liberty, are very remarkable. It is not 
very generally reflected upon how much that system of free 
government, happily established in this country, is immediately 
owing to the Reformation. Had the Papal servitude .continued 
as severe as it existed in the beginning of the reign of Henry 
the VIII; and had the minds of men not received that im- 
pulse and agitation which so important a change is calculated to 
produce, there is no probability that the great power by that 
time vested in the hands of the king would have met with any 
adequate resistance. It is well known how great a share reli- 
gious sentiments had in raising and upholding the opposition 
which was made to the tyranny of the Stuarts; and in finally 
expelling them from the throne. Neither is there any probabi- 
Jity that without this powerful auxiliary, those happy effects 
would have been produced. Even Mr. Hume himself bears 
ample testimony to the influence of this principle, who de- 
clares, in his history of Elizabeth, that " religion was the 
capital point, on which depended all the political transactions of 
that age ; and who says, that if a spark of liberty was pre- 
served alive in England at that period, it was owing to the 
puritans. It is to be observed, however, that Hume exagge- 
rates with the utmost industry the arbitrary power of Elizabeth, 
which met with no resistance, that he may extenuate that of 
the Stuarts which was resisted. In several places the spirit of 
the Reformation carried the people even to republican govern- 
ment, as at Geneva and in Holland ; and gave birth to the 
most settled and well defined ideas of republicanism. One in- 
stance of this may be adduced from a very curious work, 
chiefly written by the celebrated pensioner de Witt, and pub- 
lished by authority of the United Provinces, entitled, i( The 



120 Spirit and Influence of lite 

bourhcod of the sea were fitted to become; but 
which nature denied to the Swiss: they became 

true Interest and political maxims of the Republic of Holland 
^nd West Friesland " 

After some reasonings to prove that monarchs, or individual 
rulers, never consider it their interest to behold their subjects 
become rich and independent, it is added ; " To bring all this 
hon e, and make it suit with our state, we ought to consider 
that Holland may easily be defended against her neighbours; 
and that the flourishing of manufactures, fishing, navigation, 
and traffic, whereby that province subsists, and (its natural ne- 
cessities or wants being well considered) depends perpetually on 
them, else would be uninhabited: I say, the flourishing of 
those fcbitfgs will in c ; llibly produce great, strong, populous and 
wealthy cities, which by reason of their convenient situation, 
jmy be impregnably fortified : all which to a monarch, or one 
supreme head, is altogether intolerable. And therefore I con- 
clude, that the inhabitants of Holland, whether rulers or sub- 
jects, can receive no greater mischief in their polity, than to be 
gov emeu by a monarch, or supreme lord : and that on the other 
side, God can give no greater temporal blessing to a country in 
our condition, than to introduce and preserve a free common- 
wealth government. 

f But seeing this conclusion opposeth the general and long- 
continued prejudices of all ignorant persons, and consequently 
of most of the inhabitants of these United Provinces, and that 
some of n y readers might distaste this treatise upon what I 
have already said, unless somewhat were spoken to obviate 
their mistakes, I shall therefore offer them these reasons. 

" Aith- ugh by what hath been already said, it appears, that 
the inhab'sants of a republic are infinitely more happy than the 
subjects of' a land governed by one supreme head 3 yet the 
contrary is always thought in a country where a prince is al- 



Reformation of Luther* 121 

rich and powerful, and raised themselves to the 
rank of the first states in Europe. England, in 

ready reigning, or in republics, where one supreme head is 
reauy to be accepted. 

" For not only officers, courtiers, idle gentry, and soldiery, 
but also all those that would be such, knowing, that under the 
worst government they use to fare best, because they hope that 
with impunity they may plunder and rifle the citizens and 
country people, and so by the corruption of the government 
enrich themselves, or attain to grandeur, they cry up monar- 
chical government for their private interest to the very heavens : 
although God did at first mercifully institute.no other but a 
commonwealth government, and afterwards in his wrath ap- 
pointed one sovereign over them. Yet for all this, those blood- 
suckers of the state, and indeed of mankind, dare to speak of 
republics with the utmost contempt, make a mountain of every 
molehill, discourse of the defects of them at large, and conceal 
all that is good in them, because they know none will punish 
them for what they say : wherefore all the rabble (according to 
the eld latin verse*) being void of knowledge and judgment, and 
therefore inclining to the weather or safer side, and mightily 
valuing the vain and empty pomp of kings and princes, say 
Amen to it j especially when kept in ignorance, and irritated 
against the lawful government by preachers, who aim at domi- 
nion, or would introduce an independent and arbitrary power of 
church-government; and such (Gob amend it) are found in 
Holland, and the other United Provinces, insomuch, that all 
virtuous and intelligent people have been necessitated to keep 
tilence, and to beware of disclosing the vices of their princes, 

* Sed quid? 

Turba Remi sequitur Jfortunam, ut semper, 8? odit 
Damn&tos. Juven. 



122 Spirit arid Influence of the 

the midst of troubles occasioned also by religious 
innovations, had assumed her true station, that of 
a maritime power. 

or of such as would willingly be their governors, or of courtiers 
and rude military men, and such ambitious and ungovernable 
preachers as despise God, and their native country. 

" Nay there are few inhabitants of a perfect free state to be 
found, that are inclinable to instruct and teach others, how 
much better a republic is than a monarchy, or one supreme 
head, because they know no body will reward them for it ; and 
that on the other side, kings, * princes, and great men, are so 
dangerous to be conversed with, that even their friends can 
scarcely talk with them of the wind and weather, but at the 
hazard of their lives: and kings with their long arms can give 
heavy blows. And although all intelligent and ingenuous sub- 
jects of monarchs, who have not, with lying sycophantical 
courtiers, cast erf all shame, are generally by these reasons, 
and daily experience, fully convinced of the excellency of a 
republic above a monarchical government j yet nevertheless, 
many virtuous persons, lovers of monarchy, do plausibly main-* 
tain, that several nations are of that temper and disposition, 
that they cannot be happily governed but by a single person, 
and quote for this the examples of all the people in Asia and 
Africa, as well as Europe, that lie southerly. They do also 
allege, that all the people who lie more northerly, are more tit 
to be governed by a single person, and with more freedom,- as 
from France to trie northward, all absolute monarchical go- 
vernment ceaseth : and therefore maintain or assert, with such 
ignorant persons as I mentioned before, that the Hollanders in 

* Sed quid ziolentiuM aure Tj/ra?nu, 

Cum quo depluviii ant mstibusaut nimboso 
Vcre locuturi latum pendebat amici ? Juven. 



Reformation of Luther. 123 

Finally the Reformation produced the two most 
celebrated assemblies which the history of modern 
times has to record : The one for the concerns of 
religion, the council of, Trent, in which so much 
intrigue, eloquence and knowledge, were displayed, 
and of which the decrees, more or less modified, 
have become the principal foundation of canon 
law in all the Catholic states of Europe : The 
other, of a political nature, the congress of 
Munster and Osnaburg, which put an end to the 
terrible war of thirty years, by the treaty of 
Westphalia, that master-piece of human wisdom 
and sagacity, which for the first time constituted 
the nations of Europe into a connected system of 
bodies politic. It was during this protracted con- 
gress that the art of negotiating was brought to 
perfection, that the utility was discovered of a ba- 

particular are so turbulent, factious, and disingenuous, that 
they cannot be kept in awe, and happily governed, but by a 
single person ; and that the histories of the former reigns or 
governments by earls, will sufficiently confirm it. 

" But on the other side, the patriots, and lovers of a free 
state will say, that the foregoing government: by earls is well 
known to have been very wretched and horrid, their reigns 
filling history with continual wars, tumults, and detestable 
actions, occasioned by that single person. And that on die 
contrary, the Hollanders, subsisting by manufacture, fishing, 
navigation, and commerce, are naturally very peaceable, if by 
such a supreme head they were not excited to tumults. Whe- 
ther this be so or not, may be learned and confirmed too in ' 
' part from those histories." 



1 24 Spirit and Influence of the 

lance of power, of a -counterpoise, by which the 
powerful might be restrained, and the weak 
protected and supported. 

After this survey, too rapidly taken, of the 
principal events which immediately followed the 
Reformation, let us hazard a few conjectures on 
what would most probably have happened in 
Europe, on the supposition that it had not taken 
place. Had there been indeed a little more pru- 
dence and reserve on the part of Rome, or a de- 
gree less of inflexibility in our Reformer, or more 
indifference on the part of princes, perhaps this 
great explosion would have been extinguished in 
the spark. A Luther was requisite to accomplish 
it. But a multitude of favourable circumstances 
were requisite to make his efforts of any avail. 
How many voices were already raised, without 
being heard, without having reached the ears of 
those whom it was necessary to rouse! 



Reformation of Luther, 125 



SECTION IV. 

Conjectures* f 

IF the tide of events had followed in the six- 
teenth century, and in those which succeeded, the 
course in which it had hitherto flowed, nothing 
could have saved Europe from approaching servi- 
tude, and the yoke of an universal monarchy. 
That danger, though imminent, was, however, 
not sufficiently evident to the multitude. The 
people would not have made a common cause 
with princes to oppose it; the princes would 
not have made a common cause among them- 
selves; intrigue and interest would have too 
easily divided them. Besides, where were the 
means of rousing, and directing towards a com- 
mon object, the men of that time, who had 
almost forgotten that they were men ? The clergy 
were rich, and earnest to preserve their riches ; 
the third order, as yet almost slaves on the soil, 
had their townsmen and merchants labouring to 
acquire riches. Between those two classes was 
another, jealous of both, plundering them sword 
in hand wherever it could, and against which it 
behoved those classes to seek protection. As to 
other respects, the gentleman boasted of not 



12(5 Spirit and Influence of the 

being able to read, and the clergyman was not a 
great deal more learned. How distant were they 
from any notion of regular policy and social order, 
of common rights and equality among men! 
How foreign, in particular, were those ideas to 
the minds of the peasants ! These were so igno- 
rant, and so engrossed with popes and the clergy, 
with emperors and nobles, with saints and mira- 
cles, and feudal obligations, that they were inac- 
cessible to all sound reason and all consideration 
of their own rights. Excess of oppression hurried 
them here and there into revolts which, for want 
of union, produced no advantage. Some thou- 
sands of them were massacred on each occasion ; 
and heavier chains were imposed on those who 
escaped the slaughter. In general they knew not 
that there was any other possible kind of life than 
that of going to work on the highways for their 
lord, and of being pillaged by the military. No- 
thing remained but religion, which was an interest 
common and important to all classes. 

The popes and emperors, in the long and ob- 
stinate conflict of their pretensions, had in prece- 
ding times fortunately counterbalanced one an- 
other, and the efforts of one party had often neu- 
tralized those of its antagonist. Had the Pope 
not been so powerful, the House of Austria would 
have found less difficulty in bringing Europe under 
its sway; as the Pope too, without the resistance 



Reformation of Luther, \2t 

of the emperor, would much more easily have 
erected himself, beyond recovery, into the great 
Lama of the West, Thus one evil served long 
as a remedy to another. - But this contest could 
not last for ever, and one of them must at last 
have obtained the ascendancy. One Pope had 
already conceived the idea of placing the imperial 
crown on his own head, and one emperor that of 
placing the tiara on his. On the accession of 
Charles the V, the power placed in the hands 
of that prince was so preponderant that he would 
easily have triumphed over all his adversaries; and 
would have executed the favourite project of his 
predecessors, of reducing the whole Roman em- 
pire in the west under his authority. If we have 
seen feeble states resist powerful coalitions by 
their union, and by that alone, what could not so 
formidable a power, entrusted to a single hand, 
with such a director as Charles the V, have 
executed against Europe, broken and disunited ? 
The policy of that emperor* is sufficiently know 7 n 
to enable' us to conclude that, in pursuance of 
this great scheme, he would have courted the 
head of the church, and in order, by his means, 
the more easily to subdue the nations, he would 
have granted him the second rank in the empire; 
and an unlimited power over conscience. The\ 
holy inquisition would have become the instru- 
ment of both despots, and would, for some cen- 



128 Spirit and Influence of the 

turies more, have maintained superstition, and 
both political and mental slavery on the soil of. 
Europe. The Reformation alone could oppose a 
mound to this torrent It struck by one blow 
both the rivals, who were aspiring to impose 
chains upon Europe. Haughty Austria was 
humbled, and brought under restriction for ever. 
The Roman Pontiff lost a part of his dominions, 
and retained only a precarious power in those 
which he preserved. Powerful governments too 
have arisen, which, rivalling one another in what- 
ever contributes to the glory and happiness of 
nations, commonly second the operation of that 
new spirit which animates the people, and hasten 
to remove every trace of the barbarism of the 
middle ages. 

" The gradual progress of knowledge," we 
may be told, u would insensibly have produced 
the same consequences, and have saved all the 
evils which sprung from such terrible commotions, 
and lengthened wars." But those who object so 
do not reflect that in the system of an infallible 
church, all the decisions of which are dictated by 
the Holy Spirit, such a Reformation as is re- 
quisite becomes impossible, and that it is contrary 
to the very spirit of Roman Catholicism. It is at 
least reasonable to doubt whether the desired 
change would have happened so soon, and have 
been so complete. It is certain that at the period 
5 



Reformation of Luther. 12Q 

of the Reformation the heads of the Catholic 
religion, who at first had discovered nothing in 
the revival of letters, but glory and pleasure, or 
some tendency toward the refinement of manners^ 
and who encouraged them under that idea, began 
to perceive their own danger in too much know- 
ledge, and manifested a very distinct resistance. 
That opposition has not speedily ceased in Austria^ 
in Spain, in Italy, in the Netherlands, where all 
the means of inquisition and censure were em- 
ployed to restrain the operations of mind, and 
turn improvement backwards. Let any one com- 
pare the political, religious, and literary condition 
of the greater part of those countries during the 
succeeding ages, with the condition of Saxon 
Germany, of Holland and England, in the same 
respects; and let him judge, without prejudice, 
what could have been expected from the same 
policy extended in all its rigour over Europe. # 

* Let any one make the same comparison even at this mo- 
ment. In all those countries which have long been under the 
Austrian rod, he will find bigotry and superstition in the place 
of religion and morality; ignorance and prejudices in room of 
sound and valuable information; the most brutal sensuality in- 
stead of all the noble propensities which distinguish man when 
he has received a more elevated and liberal education. Who- 
ever has been a near observer of Austria, Spain, or the Nether- , 
lands, will feel the truth of this remark. Unquestionably the 
spirit of our times has here and there penetrated into thosa 
countries, and given rise to some exceptions. Lombardy, in 

K 



ISO Spirit and Influence of the 

As to what might have been expected, in course 
of time, from popes and the clergy, if they had 
been allowed to proceed as they chose, in the full 
career of their power and credit, we may form a 
judgment by the physical and moral condition of 
the kingdoms immediately subject to ecclesiastical 
princes. * The spirit of Popery, it is impossible 
to deny, is exclusive and intolerant: Now the 
spirit of an institution cannot cease, without 
putting an end to the institution itself. A testi- 
mony sufficiently decisive is, that the humane 
and virtuous Innocent XI was scarcely able to 

particular, situated between France, German}', Venice and 
Genoa, and which bore with impatience the Austrian yoke, 
could not be entirely brutalized. A striking monument of the 
barbarity which remained in Catholic Germany at the end of 
the eighteenth century exists in the narration of the adventures 
of M. Schad, which has been published by that gentleman, 
professor of philosophy in the university of Jena, who had 
formerly been a benedictine monk in the convent of Banz, 
whence he made his escape, fortunately for himself and for 
philosophy, which he cultivates with success. Yet those 
monks ©f Banz were regarded as the lights of Catholic Ger- 
many. It would be difficult to believe the excess of their su- 
perstition, if it were not described by an eye-witness, and one 
who had himself been concerned in it. Author. 

* I am happy to be able to quote a striking exception. All 
Europe will proclaim with me the illustrious Elector Arch- 
Chancellor of Dalberg, whom history will record among the 
best of princes, whom the sciences are proud to claim, and who 
holds in the literary world a rank correspondent to that which 
his high dignity secures to him in the political. Author, 



Reformation of Luther. 131 

execute any of his laudable designs daring a pon- 
tificate of twelve years. The popes since the 
Reformation, more cautious, reduced, indeed, to 
the last stage of debility, have yielded by neces- 
sity in several rencounters; but what they wanted 
was strength, not inclination. Many attempts 
have been made to re-unite the Reformed and 
Catholic churches, The -latter has rendered all 
those efforts vain, by refusing to relax her pre- 
tensions. Towards the end of the seventeenth 
century, the emperor Leopold the first entered 
warmly into this design; and plenipotentiaries 
were named on the different sides* The nego- 
tiations were even carried into France, and con- 
ducted by Leibnitz on the part of the Protestants," 
and Pelisson and Bossuet on that of the Catholics. 
This last personage displayed on the occasion all 
his eloquence, but at the same time all the inflex- 
ibility of his genius,- and all that pf his church. 
There could not be, according to him, any men- 
tion in any respect of accommodation, but only 
of submission* If any one consider the haughty 
and violent language used at that time by a man 
so enlightened as Bossuet, it will be difficult for 
him not to suppose that were the riches and 
power of the Romish clergy restored, we should 
behold them as fanatical and persecuting as before** 

* Every year, on a particular day, the Pope still excommu* 
jiicat s and curses all heretics, and particularly the Lutherans, 

K 9, 



132 Spirit and Influence of the 

The intrigues of the Catholic party to restore 
Protestant princes to the Romish communion, 

in these words : ' ' We then, following this ancient and solemn 
practice, excommunicate and anathematize, on the part of God 
Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and on our own 
part, all heretics, as also those who follow the damnable, im- 
pious, and abominable heresy of Martin Luther, and all who 
encourage and receive it, and all who read the books of the 
said Martin, or of any other, and in general all their de- 
fenders, "(a) (Bullar. Magn. Luxemb. 1804, Vol. I. p. 718,) 
"Who would have thought that after the most zealous Catholics 
have condemned the impolitic revocation of die edict of Xantz 
by Louis XIV, there could have been found in Europe a prince 
sufficiently barbarous to have recourse to a measure so ruinous 
to his dominions? The archbishop of Salzburg, Baron of 
Firmian, inflicted on his country a similar calamity in the year 
1782. After persecuting with the utmost atrocity those of his 
subjects who were not Catholics, he commanded them at last 
to quit their country, to the number of 50,000, without daring 
to carry with them any of their property, or even their fami- 
lies. This emigration has exhausted that little country . The 
unhappy fugitives were received by the Protestant states of 
Europe, and provided with the means of subsistence. A great 
part of them went to clear and people North America, where 
the descendants of those Salzburgers are still to be found. 

Author. 

(a) It is but candid, howe\er, to own that the retaining of 
an exceptionable ceremony in the annual service of the church 
is not a very sure foundation of any conclusion against the spirit 
of the church j since according to this rule we should be 
obliged to think very unfavourably of churches which we 
know to be the most liberal. The church of England, for 



Reformation of Luther. 133 

are worthy of being made known, such, for ex- 
ample, as those employed in the case of the 
elector of Saxony, and of Christina, queen of 
Sweden. The aversion to all the sovereigns who 
remain separated from Rome is abundantly visible ; 
and the Holy See has not to this hour formally 
recognised the king of Prussia.* Long after the 

example, retains in her liturgy and repeats the creed of St. 
Athanasius, which declares all persons damned who do not be- 
lieve the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity. 

* The Pope at present on the throne has lately declared in. a 
brief addressed to Prince Ruspoli, that he ought to be regarded 
as supreme head of all the orders of chivalry. In this he has 
followed the example of his predecessors. When the Teutonic 
knights, in the thirteenth century, conquered ducal Prussia, 
and set themselves up as its sovereigns, Innocent the IV de- 
clared by a bull dated An. 1243, that this conquest of right 
belonged to him. The following are his words 3 " The territory 
of Prussia we take into the possession, and under the jurisdiction 
of St., Peter j and we decree it to remain for ever under the 
special defence and protection of the apostolic see." (Acta 
Borrusiae, V, I. p. 423.) A sovereignty so well established is 
not willingly resigned. When the Electors of Brandenburg 
assumed the title of kings of Prussia, and when all the courts 
of Europe, except that of Spain, recognised them in this cha- 
racter, the Pope Clement -XI set up the loudest complaints, 
and wrote to the different sovereigns to rouse them against the 
unparalleled impudence of the Marquis of Brandenburg. In 
the brief addressed to the king of France on the l6th of April, 
1701, we. read as follows; " Although we are persuaded that 
your majesty by no means approves of the attempt, which forms ' 
a precedent most pernicious to the christian commonwealth, 



134 Spirit and Influence of the 

Reformation, Clement the VIII drew up a form 
of an oath to be taken by bishops and archbishops, 

raised by Frederick, Marquis of Brandenburg, in presuming 
publicly to usurp the name of king; an action of a sort con- 
trary to the terms of the apostolic sanctions; — by which action 
truly the sacred dignity of king is assumed by a man not a Ca- 
tholic, even in contempt of the church : And indeed the 
Marquis does not scruple to call himself king of that part of 
Prussia which by ancient right belongs to the order of Teutonic 
knights : We cannot pass over the affair in silence, that we 
may not appear wanting in our duty. We require that you 
will not pay him regal honours, who has too rashly joined him- 
self in the number of those whom the following passage of sa- 
cred writ condemns and reprobates; <{ They have reigned, but 
not by me ; princes they were, but I have not known them." 
And in the Oraticnes Consistor. of Clement XI we see that this 
Pope in presenting the account of this event, and of his bull to 
the college of cardinals, states, (f that the Margrave Frederic 
had arrogated to himself the title of king in an impious manner, 
and hitherto unexampled among christians; it being well un- 
derstood, that according to the pontifical laws, an heretical 
prince ought much rather to lose his ancient dignities than 
obtain new." — Is not this the language and principles of Hilde- 
brand, the same pretensions, and the same abuse of the bible, 
by strangely perverting passages to modern events ? It is ima- 
gined, perhaps, that the Holy See departed from this protesta- 
tion afterwards, and recognised a sovereign who treats his 
Catholic subjects with an exemplary equality. Nothing less 
than this, In 1782, when Pius VI travelled in Germany, a 
Prussian minister made several overtures to obtain from him a 
formal acknowledgment of the crown of Prussia. Pius VI, 
who at that time did not wish to quarrel « ith a German prince, 
answered politely, an,d promised that as soon as he should return. 

5 



Reformation oj Luther. 135 

in which all the principles of the despotism and 

to Rome, he would summon a congregation of cardinals, 
without whom he could decide nothing, to deliberate on the 
affair. That congregation has never been summoned, and the 
Pope has forgotten his promise. The pontifical calendar printed 
at Rome, with the approbation and sanction of the Holy 
Father, has continued since as before, to make no mention either 
of the kingdom or dutchy of Prussia, or even of the electorate of 
Brandenburg. In the genealogical article, where mention is 
made of that house (1783) we find the Great Frederick, 
designated in this manner, Charles Frederick, Marquis (Mar- 
chese) a title so insignificant at Rome, that it is a subject of 
ridicule. The prince Henry of Prussia is denominated the 
brother of the Marquis. In that calendar there is no room for 
an Electorate of Hanover. In general, eve'ry thing which bore 
a part in the odiovs treaty of Westphalia is vilified at Rome. 
The thundering bull of Innocent X against that instrument of 
peace between Christian nations, is well known: and his sac* 
cessors from time to time have renewed these anathemas. In 
this respect the pontifical court stands without the public law of 
Europe, and has separated from the political communion,. In 
17S2, on the occasion of some disputes concerning the Prussian 
part of the diocese of Cologne, the king of Prussia defended 
himself by an article of that celebrated treaty. The Pope re- 
plied in express terms that the treaty of Westphalia was of no 
validity with regard to him ; since it was never recognised by 
his See ; "'The separation which is supposed to have been 
made by the fifth article of the treaty of Westphalia can avail 
nothing in regard to the present question, since it is known 
that the Holy See has never recognised that treaty, against 
which -Innocent X protested not only in words, but by two 
formal deeds. It is therefore not to be expected, that the 
Hply Father will make any concession which would be at va- 



136 Spirit and Influence of the 

intolerance of Rome are established. * What, to 
speak sincere] y, can be expected from such temper 

riance with that procedure." His letter is very well known at 
Berlin. The same state calendar, quoted above, in the article, 
i( Population of Rome," enumerates strangers also, and among 
other particulars has the following, " Heretics, Turks, and 
other Infidels, above 100!" — Those are recent facts, and a 
thousand others might be mentioned. I ask of any impartial 
judge, if they are of a kind to inspire any great confidence in 
the voluntary improvement of the system of the pontifical 
court, and of the spirit of popery ? Author. 

* " I will be faithful and obedient to our lord the Pope, and 
to his successors. The counsel which they may impart to me I 
will disclose to no one. In preserving and defending the 
Romish papacy and the regalia of St. Peter, I will be their as- 
sistant against all men. I will labour to preserve, to defend, to 
increase, and to promote the rights, honours, privileges and 
authority of the holy Romish church, of our lord the Pope, 
and of his successors, with which if I shall discover any other 
persons whatsoever to meddle, as soon as possible I will give 
information. Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our same 
lord, I will pursue to the utmost of my power." (Pontificale 
Romanum Clem. VIII Pontif. Max. jussu editum. Antwerp. 
1627, p 59-) Let us add a word more on the famous bull 
In Ccena J)omhi 3 which contains the essence of transalpine or- 
thodoxy., and the principles which are and ever will be the 
secret foundation of thef conduct of the Holy See. This bull, 
drawn up in 16*10, by Paul V, and published in l627 ', by 
Urban VIII is merely a complete collection of the anathemas 
discharged during ages against the persons found refractory to 
the orders of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. It excommunicates 
heretics, schismatics, pirates, all those who dare appeal from 
the bulls and briefs of the Pope to a fature council., the princes 



Reformation of Luther, 137 

and principles? What might not have been done 
by absolute Popes, supported by bigotted and su 
perstitious emperors, united by temper and in > 
terest with Rome? 

When we consider in this manner what might 
have happened, but what did not happen ; is not 
this in some measure to describe the influence 
which the Reformation had on the state of affairs 
in Europe ? But let us observe more in detail what 
have been its positive effects.* 

who raise new taxes without the permission of the Popes, 
those who make treaties of alliance with Turks and heretics, 
those who appeal to secular judges against the injuries and op- 
pressions of the court of Rome, &c. These odious terms long 
formed the law of Rcmish obedience, and that even in some 
provinces of France, such as Roussillon and Cerdagne, until at 
last the courageous de Cappot, advocate general to the supreme 
council of Roussillon, in the month of March 17&J, took mea- 
sures against that abuse of ecclesiastical power, and opposed the 
annual publication of the bull. See a work entitled (C Jurispru- 
dence du grand-conseil examinee dans les maximes du roy- 
aume," Avignon, 1775. Author. 

* Enough has undoubtedly been said to satisfy any reasonable 
'man that the spirit of the Romish church was altogether oppo- 
site to the admission of improvement, that improvement never 
could have originated in her, and that could her power have 
been preserved commensurate to her designs, improvement 
woul4 have been for ever prevented. It will too, we should 
imagine, be pretty generally allowed, that the circumstances 
here pointed out by Villers render it extremely probable that 
such a degree of power would, at the beginning of the sixteenth 
century, have been retained or acquired by that church, as 



138 Spirit and Influence of the 

would have enabled her effectually to resist improvement for 
centuries longer, if the grand rebellion had not broken that 
power, and opened a source of improvement independent of 
the Romish church, and in defiance of her opposition. It is by 
no means improbable that were the same irresistible power be- 
stowed upon any church, she would make a similar bad use ojf 
it. It is the nature of irresistible power in the hands of frail 
and corrupted man, to be abused. The reduction of the power 
of the Romish church was therefore of the utmost importance 
to all the best interests of humanity • and of equal importance 
it is to prevent that power from ever again becoming enormous. 
But this affords no reason whatever for depriving the members 
of that church of their equal share of the rights and privileges 
of citizenship, in any country in the world, when the power of 
the church is not by such means rendered in the smallest degree 
more dangerous. The object of no rational mind can be to 
punish or depress the individuals who profess that or any other 
religion ; it is to keep the power of the church within bounds. 
But how can the power of the church of Rome, for example, 
be extended beyond bounds by the emancipation of the Ca- 
tholics in Ireland? This much we thought necessary to remark, 
because the strong and just picture here drawn of the tendency 
of the enormous power once possessed by the Romish church, 
might be converted into a prejudice against the rights which 
the Roman Catholics of Ireland claim, not as Catholics, but 
as citizens ; and from which no advantage could accrue to the 
church of Rome, as a system, nor any prejudice to the church 
of En cf land as another. 



Reformation of Luther, 3 39 



PART SECOND. 

Influence of the Reformation. 



CHAPTER I. 

On the political Situation of the States of Europe. 

Mens agitat molem, 

The living Poiver of Mind triumphs over the dead 
Power of Matter. 

EUROPE, before the Reformation, was in ge- 
neral subject to two powers, the spiritual and the 
temporal. The head of the church, on one side, 
extended his authority and pretensions over the 
nations indiscriminately; a great number of bi- 
shops and prelates on the other had acquired the 
temporal sovereignty of the flocks which had at 
first been entrusted to their spiritual guidance ; 
and there was no country in which the clergy, 
high and low, secular and regular, did not possess 
considerable wealth and privileges, and did not 
enjoy great authority. The church was an im- 
mense body, which violently constrained, and in 
a greater or less degree modified all the political 



140 Spirit and Influence of the 

bodies. Every remarkable change accordingly in 
the church produced one in the political world. 
A revolution, however, which began in the pro- 
vince of religion necessarily produced its first 
effects on the church. It is natural then to treat 
of this, in the first instance, as well in regard to 
itself, and its head, as in regard to its relations, 
and those of its members with the different go- 
vernments. We shall next examine the influence 
which the Reformation, considered in a political 
point of view, has had on the states of Etirope, 
both Protestant and Catholic ; and afterwards ex- 
hibit a view of the system of the balance of 
power introduced into Europe at that epoch, of 
the changes which it underwent, and of the 
powers which one after another possessed the 
principal weight in it, till the period when it 
ceased to be acted upon by the Reformation. 



Reformation of Luther. ~ 141 



SECTION I. 

On the Churchy and its Connection with the States. 

±HE Popes lose one half of the Empire, and 
more than one half of Switzerland, all Denmark, 
Sweden, Holland and England. The rich tribute 
which flowed from those countries towards Rome 
instantaneously ceases. The authority of the so- 
vereign pontiff over all those Christian powers is 
annihilated. Had it only been a new inundation 
of barbarians, an earthquake, a deluge, any phy- 
sical cause, in short, which had torn those fair 
possessions from the Holy See, it would have been 
nothing. It was an active force, an epidemic and 
dangerous malady, to which those losses were to be 
ascribed. Nations and princes, of their own ac- 
cord, and from conviction, had, in this manner, 
renounced the authority of the Roman pontiff. 
The example was to be dreaded, both for the 
present moment, and for all time to come. It 
was easy to foresee that sooner or later this prece- 
dent would be universally followed. 3 * The church, 

* It is natural to be struck with wonder when one reflects to 
what an extent the example of Luther has been already followed, 
and how very near the authority of the Pope is to a complete 



1 42 Spirit anK Influence of the 

separated from Rome, maintained itself with de 
cency and honour; in it religion, the gospel, and 
morality, were respected; the claims which 
Rome had set up were .estimated at their just 
value; books of merit written on the subject 
were diffused in all quarters, and read even in 
Catholic countries; they were not read without 

extinction. It is scarcely three centuries since the first blow 
was struck at that colossal and pernicious power which held the 
human race in bondage and terror, and against which it seemed 
that the powers of human nature would be exerted in vain. 
Such have been the effects of die progress of reason and know- 
ledge in the three centuries which have preceded ; such the 
enemy whom they have brought down, while yet only in their 
infancy. What may they not be expected to do in much less 
than three centuries to come, now that they have advanced to 
such a degree of maturity ? It is remarkable that one of the 
latest acts of degradation to which the Pope has been subjected, 
strikes a fatal blow at the root of another of the prejudices by 
which chiefly mankind have been held in bondage, the opinion 
that a family which has long ruled over a nation with absolute 
sway has a divine right to rule over them with absolute sway, 
and that it is criminal in the people to wrest this power out of 
their hands. The Pope has given the whole sanction of his 
office and character to an individual set up by the people, after 
they had dethroned, and banished, and killed the individuals, 
who by the ancient title should have been their unlimited sove- 
reigns. As far then as the authority of the Pops is concerned, 
the right of the people to make and unmake governments for 
themselves is beyond dispute. In other Catholic countries this 
principle may be expected to produce its effects at no distant 
period -j nor have its effects yet ceased in France itself. 



^Reformation of Luther, 143 

producing some impression ; and even on the 
steps o( the pontifical throne, more than an 
ironical smile had been made at the expence of 
the tiara. It was this which rendered the wound 
deep and incurable, and which the Popes did not 
at first allow themselves to believe was of such 
magnitude. They were yet seen, after this terrible 
blow, to present for a moment to the Christian 
world an image of the pride of Hildebrand, and 
of the vices of Borgia. But time, at last, and 
severe experience, have taught them to know 
their true situation. They have resigned them- 
selves, at least in practice, to that character of 
humility and complaisance which henceforth has 
become their portion among the potentates of the 
earth.* The Catholic princes, on their part, have 

* The French revolution has been peculiarly instrumental in 
bringing the Pope to the last stage of degradation ; his territo- 
ries overrun and pillaged again and again ; he compelled to every 
species of submission ; and the holy chair itself kept empty till 
it suited the convenience of the republican and atheistical chiefs 
to place in it a Vicar of Jesus Christ. The temporal power 
of the Pope is completely destroyed by the republic, and he is 
one of the meanest of the vassals of Bonaparte. This is not 
only seen and felt by the princes of Europe 5 there is hardly a 
monk or a peasant, in the darkest Catholic corner of Europe, 
who is not sensible of it. It is now visible to every votary of 
the Holy See, that the Pope has nothing to give. His vast pa- 
tronage stimulated the zeal of those votaries in former times j 
and we may now expect to see speedy changes in the state of 
Catholicism wherever it yet exists, 



144 Spirit and Influence of the 

from that time regarded the Pope as a political 
engine, which they might work for the accom- 
plishment of their purposes ; as a means of turning 
to advantage the credulity of their people. Hence 
the arts employed to court him. But from that 
time the appearance of respect has only been vain 
ceremony. It was too well known that the Vati- 
can now was only a volcano exhausted. What 
issued spontaneously from Rome was impotent 
and unavailing, whilst a single courier, dispatched 
from Paris, from Vienna or Lisbon, towards that 
ancient capital of the world, extorted from it 
sometimes a bull for the extinction of a religious, 
order, sometimes a reform, sometimes a regula- 
tion ; so many proofs of submission given by the 
feeble successor of so many haughty pontiffs, 
who only purchased his precarious existence at 
the price of all the compliances exacted of him. 

So considerable a portion of the riches and au- 
thority of Rome having disappeared, her exces- 
sive luxury, her flatterers and parasites disappeared 
also by degrees. This paved the way for a refor- 
mation "of morals, for a change of life, become 
altogether indispensable among the Romish clergy. 
The clergy of the Protestant church were in ge- 
neral poor, learned, and exemplary. So many 
eyes directed to the contrast between the two 
parties created an imperious obligation to diminish, 
and even to extinguish it. The Popes, besides, 



Reformation of Luther. 145 

and all the other Romish clergy, living in the 
age to which they belonged, and partaking of 
its knowledge, would themselves have blushed at 
a conduct resembling that of so many of their 
predecessors. Those in particular who have held 
the office of pastors in the times nearest our own 
have commonly lived in the exercise of the most 
eminent virtues. The clergy of the Romish 
church, both head and members, have become 
anew what they ought always to have been. 
This church has, it is exceedingly true, executed 
on itself a reform, but it is equally true that this 
reform is nothing but an immediate, and perhaps 
a forced consequence of that accomplished by 
Luther; who, in this light, ought to be regarded 
as the reformer of the Catholic clergy themselves. 
What has been said concerning the reduction 
and abasement of the Romish clergy ought not to 
be understood, as has already been hinted, of, the 
times immediately following the Reformation., 
As the political troubles which arose in Europe on 
that occasion had all a religious character, and 
flowed from religious quarrels as their source, it 
was natural that ecclesiastics should act in them 
an important part; that they should be considered 
by princes as agents necessary to the cause, and 
be chosen for their counsellors and ministers. We 
see accordingly a great number of churchmen 
during that period raised to eminent places in the 

L 



146 Spirit and Influence of the 

state, and vested with the greatest power, as 
Richlieu and Mazarin in France. The famous 
council of Trent too, which engaged and kept in 
action the cabinets of Europe from the year 1695 
to the year 1 663, rendered ecclesiastics indispen- 
sable in the councils of princes. The high opinion 
likewise entertained of the refined policy of the 
court of Rome was a prejudice favourable to 
every thing in the form of priest. This political 
importance conferred upon certain individuals 
among the clergy could not fail to have an effect 
with regard to the whole body ; and no doubt the 
church owes to it the re-establishment and preser- 
vation of many privileges which she would then 
have lost. Some violent measures too adopted by 
courts, of which the history of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries affords abundance of ex- 
amples, were fairly owing to the inquisitorial zeal 
of such counsellors. Some, however, of these 
political priests conducted themselves with more 
regard to the state than the altar; and the minister 
sometimes in them gained the ascendancy of the 
priest. Finally this last period of sacerdotal im- 
portance has itself passed away. It vanished in- 
/stantaneously after the treaty of Westphalia, wheal 
religion ceased to be the prime mover in political 
affairs, and when the wheels of governments were 
set in motion by different springs; by the spirit, 
for example, of finance and commerce, the in- 



Reformation of Luther. 147 

fluence of which still remains, and may for a long 
time to come. 

To the same causes we ought to attribute the 
rapid elevation and immense credit of the new 
order of Jesuits, which, produced as it was along 
with Protestantism, was destined from its birth to 
oppose and counterbalance it.* These new troops 

* The account of this society given by Dr. Robertson in his 
History of Charles the Fifth, is so interesting, and the subject 
itself is of so much importance, and so intimately connected 
with the Reformation, that the passage, though long, is highly 
worthy of insertion : 

" The constitution and laws of the society were perfected 
by Laynez and Aquaviva, the two generals who succeeded 
Loyola, men far superior to their master in abilities, and in the 
science of government. They framed that system of profound 
and artful policy which distinguishes the order. The large in- 
fusion of fanaticism, mingled with its regulations, should be 
imputed to Loyola its founder. Many circumstances concurred 
in giving a peculiarity of character to the order of Jesuits, and 
in forming the members of it not only to take a greater part in 
the affairs of the world than any other body of monks, but to 
acquire superior influence in the conduct of them. 

"■ The primary object of almost all the monastic orders is to 
separate men from the world, and from any concern in its 
affairs. In the solitude and silence of the cloister, the monk 
is called to work out his own salvation by extraordinary acts of 
mortification and piety. He is dead to the world, and ought 
not to mingle in its transactions. He can be of no benefit to 
mankind, but by his example and by his prayers. On the con- 
trary, the Jesuits are taught to consider themselves as formed 
for action. They are chosen soldiers,, bound to exert themselves 

L 2 



t48 .-:■:! Ifuence of the 

of the church, formed into a body in a mar.: 
much more formic the army of Men- 

ID, and of the Pope, his vicar on earth. 
Wl be ignorant : whatever can be c 

:d oppose the enemies of the Holy See, is their 
all leisure for this ac 
r rail, exempted from those functions, the 
rmance of which is the chief business of other monks. 
car in no processions ; they practise no rigorous an 

not consume one : their time in the repe- 

: 5 offices. But they are required to attend to all 
arid, on account of the influence which 
these may have upon religion; they are directed the 

r persons in high rank, and to cultivate their 
; and by the very constitution, as well as gen: a 
:: action and intrigue is infused into al 
:ers. 
"' A? -^ : ;-'-'- r'erea :':.: 

a e other monastic orders, the diversity was no less in the 
form of its govern- iers are to be considered 

fsociations, in which whatever affects the whole 
regulated by the common suffrage of all its mem: 
Tlae rat: ; are 

each ;:a a: in ::' the whole society; the legislative aa- 
ty resides in the community. Affairs of moment, relating 
.:;... : :::a: ::. : 

efaec: a.e ■-■':. z'.t ::ae: are c:a:lde:e:l :a reaerel c:a~ 

Bnt Loyola, full of the ideas of implicit obedience, 

air derived arraa hi ralllrirv arzreailra. 2:::. area 

aaraea: cf a : = ::der sir: aid be rarely aa:a?r:h:cil, 

A General ::r life by deputies from the several pro- 

- are?. •: :-:eF:rd pav; --as farrerae aad lr.de: 

: "a. aad :: ever/ ■ 



Reformation of Luther. 149 

dicantSj raised in the barbarous ages, having in- 
vented a system of tactics much more adapted to 

authority, nominated provincials, rectors, and every other of- 
ficer employed in the government of the society, and could re- 
move them at pleasure. In him was vested the sovereign ad- 
ministration of the revenues and funds of the order. Every 
member belonging to it was at his disposal ; and by his uncon- 
trolable mandate, he could impose on them any task, or employ 
them in what service soever he pleased. To his commands they 
were required not only to yield outward obedience, but to resign 
up to him me inclinations of their own wills, and the senti- 
ments of their own understandings. They were to listen to 
his injunctions, as if they had been uttered by Christ himself. 
Under his direction, they were to be mere passive instruments, 
like clay in the hands of the potter, or like dead carcases inca- 
pable of resistance. Such a singular form of policy could not 
fail to impress its character on all the members of the order, 
and to give a peculiar force to all its operations. There is not 
in the annals of mankind any example of such a perfect despo- 
tism, exercised not over monks shut up in the cells of a con- 
vent, but over men dispersed among all the nations of the 
earth. 

" As the constitutions of the order vest, in the General, 
such absolute dominion over all its members, they carefully 
provide for his being perfectly informed with respect to the 
character and abilities of his subjects. Every novice who offers 
himself as a candidate for entering into the order, is obliged to 
manifest his conscience to the superior, or to a person appointed 
by him ; and in doing this is required to confess not only his 
sins and defects, but to discover the inclinations, the passions, 
and the bent of his soul. This manifestation must be renewed 
every six months, The society, not satisfied with penetra ting- 
in this manner into the innermost recesses of the heart, directs 



150 Spirit and liifluence of the 

the spirit of the present times, performed in be- 
half of the enfeebled church all that could be ex- 
each member to observe the words and actions of the novices; 
they are constituted spies upon their conduct; and are bound to 
disclose every thing of importance concerning them to the su- 
perior. In order that this scrutiny into their character may be 
as complete as possible, a long noviciate must expire, during 
which they pass through the several gradations of ranks in the 
society, and they must have attained the full age of thirty-three 
years before they can be admitted to take the final vows, by 
which they become professed members. By these various me- 
thods, the superiors, under whose immediate inspection the no- 
vices are placed, acquire a thorough knowledge of their dispo- 
sitions and talents. In order that the General, who is the soul 
that animates and moves the whole society, may have under his 
eye every thing necessary to inform or direct him, the provin- 
cials and heads of the several houses are obliged to transmit to 
him regular and frequent reports concerning the members under 
their inspection. In these they descend into minute details 
with respect to the character of each person, his abilities natural 
or acquired, his temper, his experience in affairs, and the par- 
ticular department for which he is best fitted.* These reports, 

* " M. de Chalotais has made a calculation of the number of 
these reports, which the General of the Jesuits must annually 
receive according to the regulations of the Society. These 
amount in all to 6584. If this 'sum be divided by 37, the 
number of provinces in the order, it will appear that 177 reports 
concerning the state of each province are transmitted to Rome 
annually. Compte, p. 52. Besides this, there may be extra- 
ordinary letters, or such as are sent by the monitors or spies 
whom the General and Provincials entertain in each house. 
Compte par M. de Moncl. p. 431. Hist, des Jesuites, Amst. 
1761, torn. iv. p. 56. The provincials and hjeadsof houses not 



Reformation of Luther. 151 

pected from human powers directed by the most 
profound skill, by zeal, perseverance, genius, and 

when digested and arranged, are entered into registers kept on 
purpose that the General may, at one comprehensive view, 
survey the state of the society in every corner of the earth ; 
observe the qualifications and talents of its members; and thus 
choose, with perfect information, the instruments which his 
absolute power can employ in any service for which he thinks 
meet to destine them. 

" As it was the professed intention of the order of Jesuits to 
labour with unwearied zeal in promoting the salvation of men, 
this engaged them, of course, in many active functions. From 
their J&rst institution, they considered the education of youth 
as their peculiar province ; they aimed at being spiritual guides 
and confessors 3 they preached frequently in order to instruct 
the people j they set out as missionaries to convert unbelieving 
nations. The novelty of the institution, as well as the singu- 
larity of its objects, procured the order many admirers and 
patrons. The governors of the society had the address to avail 
themselves of every circumstance in its favour, and in a short 
time the number as well as influence of its members increased 

only report concerning the members of the society, but are 
bound to give the General an account of the civil affairs in the 
country wherein they are settled, as far as their knowledge of 
these may be of benefit to religion. This condition may extend 
to every particular, so that the General is furnished with full 
information concerning the transactions of every Prince and 
State in the world. Compte par M. de Moncl. 443. Hist, des 
Jesuit, ibid. p. 58. When the affairs with respect to which the 
provincials or rectors write are of importance, they are directed 
to use cyphers ; and each of them has a particular cypher from 
the General. Compte par M. Chalotais, p. o4." 



3 52 Spirit and Influence of the 

he union of talents, of every sort. They took 
possession of courts, of the people, of confes- 

wond-rfully. Before the expiration of the sixteenth century, 
the Jesuits had obtained the ch'ef direction of the education of 
youth in every Catholic country in Europe. They had become 
the confessors of almost all its monarchs, a function of no small 
importance in any reign, but under a weak Prince, superior 
even to that of minister. They were the spiritual guides of 
almost every person eminent for rank or power. They possessed 
the highest degree of confidence and interest with the papal 
court, as the most zealous and able champions for its authority. 
The advantages which an active and enterprising body of men 
might derive from all these circumstances are obvious. They 
formed the minds of men in their youth. They retained an 
ascendant over them in their advanced years. They possessed, 
at different periods, the direction of the most considerable 
courts in Europe. They mingled in all affairs. They took 
part in every intrigue and revolution. The General, by means 
of the extensive intelligence which he received, could regulate 
the operations of the order with the most perfect discernment, 
and by means of his absolute power could carry them on with 
the utmost vigour and effect. 

ci Together with the power of the order, its wealth conti- 
nued to increase. Various expedients were devised for eluding 
the obligation of the vow of poverty. The order acquired 
ample possessions in every Catholic country ; and by the number 
as well as magnificence of its public buildings, together with 
the value of its property, moveable or real, it vied with the 
most opulent of the monastic fraternities, Besides the sources 
of wealth common to all the regular clergy, the Jesuits pos- 
sessed one which was peculiar to themselves. Under pretext of 
promoting the success of their missions, and of facilitating the 
support of their missionaries^ they obtained a special licence 



Reformation of Lather, 153 

sionals, of pulpits, of the education of youth, 
of missions, and of the deserts of both worlds. 

from the court of Rome, to trade with the nations which they 
laboured to convert. In consequence of this, they engaged in 
an extensive and lucrative commerce, both in the East and West 
Indies. They opened warehouses in different parts of Europe, 
in which they vended their commodities. Not satisfied with 
trade alone, they imitated the example of other commercial 
societies, and aimed at obtaining settlements. They acquired 
possession accordingly of a large and fertile province in the 
southern continent of America, and reigned as sovereigns over 
some hundred thousand subjects. 

" Unhappily for mankind, the vast influence which the order 
of Jesuits acquired by all these different means, has been often 
exerted with the most pernicious effect. Such was the tendency 
of that discipline observed by the society in forming its mem- 
bers, and such the fundamental maxims in its constitution, that 
every Jesuit was taught to regard the interest of the order as 
the capital object, to which every consideration was to be sa- 
crificed. This spirit of attachment to their order, the most 
ardent, perhaps, that ever influenced any body of men, is the 
characteristic principle of the Jesuits, and serves as a key to the 
genius of their policy, as well as to the peculiarities in their sen» 
timents and conduct. 

" As it was for the honour and advantage of the society, that 
its members should possess an ascendant over persons in high 
rank or of great power, the desire of acquiring and preserving 
such a direction of their conduct, with greater facility, has led 
the Jesuits to propagate a system of relaxed and pliant morality, 
which accommodates itself to the passions of men, which 
justifies their vices, which tolerates their imperfections, which 
authorizes almost every action that the most audacious or crafty 
politician would wish to perpetrate. 



3 54 Spirit and Influence of the 

Nothing appeared to them impossible in order to 
extend the dominion of the Holy See in places 

" As the prosperity of the order was intimately connected 
with the preservation of the papal authority, the Jesuits, influ- 
enced by the same principle of attachment to the interests of 
their society, have been the most zealous patrons of those 
doctrines, which tend to exalt ecclesiastical power on the ruins 
of civil government. They have attributed to the court of 
Rome a jurisdiction as extensive and absolute as was claimed by 
the most presumptuous pontiffs in the dark ages. They have 
contended for the entire independence of ecclesiasticals on the 
civil magistrate. They have published such tenets concerning 
the duty of opposing Princes who were enemies of the Catholic 
faith, as countenanced the most atrocious crimes, and tended 
to dissolve all the ties which connect subjects with their rulers. 

" As the order derived both reputation and authority 
from the zeal with which it stood forth in defence of the 
Romish church against the attacks of the Reformers, its mem- 
bers, proud of this distinction, have considered it as their 
peculiar function to combat the opinions, and to check the 
progress of the Protestants. They have made use of every art, 
and have employed every weapon against them. They have 
set themselves in opposition to every gentle or tolerating measure 
in their favour. They have incessantly stirred up against them 
all the rage of ecclesiastical and civil persecution. 

(i Monks of other denominations have, indeed, ventured to 
teach the same pernicious doctrines, and have held opinions 
equally inconsistent with the order and happiness of civil society. 
But they, from reasons which are obvious, have either delivered 
such opinions with greater reserve, or have propagated them 
with less success. "Whoever recollects the events which have 
happened in Europe during two centuries, will find that the 
Jesuits may justly be considered as responsible for most of the 



Reformation of Luther. 155 

v/here it did not yet exist, or to confirm it where 
it had before been maintained. For this they 

pernicious effects arising from that corrupt and dangerous 
casuistry, from those extravagant tenets concerning ecclesiastical 
power, and from that intolerant spirit, which have been the 
disgrace of the church of Rome throughout that period, and 
which have brought so many calamities upon civil society. 

?' But amidst many bad consequences flowing from the in- 
stitution of this order, mankind, it must be acknowledged, 
have derived from it some considerable advantages. As the \ 
Jesuits made the education of youth one of their capital objects, 
and as their first attempts to establish colleges for the reception 
of students were violently opposed by the universities in different 
countries, it became necessary for them, as the most effectual 
method of acquiring the public favour, to surpass their rivals in 
science and industry. This prompted them to cultivate the 
study of ancient literature with extraordinary ardour. This put 
them upon various methods for facilitating the instruction of 
youth 5 and by the improvements which they made in it, tiiey 
have contributed so much towards the progress of polite learnings 
that on this account they have merited well of society. Nor 
has the order of Jesuits been successful only in teaching the 
elements of literature j it has produced likewise eminent masters 
in many branches of science, and can alone boast of a greater 
number of ingenious authors, than all the other religious frater- 
nities taken together. "* Robertson's History of the Reign of 
Charles the Vth, Vol. III. B. 6. 

* " M. d' Alembert has observed, that though the Jesuits have 
made extraordinary progress in erudition of every species* 
though they can reckon up many of their brethren who have 
been eminent mathematicians, antiquaries, and critics ; though 
they have even formed some orators of reputation ; yet the 
order has never produced one man, whose mind was so much 



] 56 Spirit and Influence of the 

dreaded neither persecution nor calumny. Decried 
by their enemies as ambitious men, as promoters 
of disorder, as vicious in their lives, even as regi- 
cides ; in opposition to these clamours they pre- 
sented the stoical simplicity of their manners, 
their real services, and their studious austerity. 
This is not the place to describe particularly the 
political movements produced in Europe by this 
celebrated society, whose effects are all to be 
ascribed to the re-action of Catholicism upon the 
Reformation. It is enough to say that had it 
been possible for the latter to yield, and to expe- 
rience a counter-revolution, the Jesuits, unques- 
tionably, would have accomplished this great en- 
terprise. Far otherwise has been the event. 

enlightened with sound knowledge, as to merit the name of a 
philosopher. But it seems to be the unavoidable effect of mo- 
nastic education to contract and fetter the human mind. The 
partial attachment of a monk to the interest of his order, which 
is often incompatible with that of other citizens ; the habit of 
implicit obedience to the will of a superior, together with the 
frequent return of the wearisome and frivolous duties of the 
cloister, debase his faculties, and extinguish that generosity of 
sentiment and spirit, which qualifies men for thinking or feeling 
justly with respect to what is proper in life and conduct. Father 
Paul of Venice is, perhaps, the only person educated In a 
cloister, tha* ever was altogether superior to its prejudices, or 
who viewed the transactions of men, and reasoned concerning 
the interests of society, with the enlarged sentiments of a phi- 
losopher, with the discernment of a man conversant in affairs^ 
and with the liberality of a gentleman." 



Reformation of Luther. 157 

The enemy, whom they fondly hoped to prostrate, 
struck them with a mortal blow. The genius of 
modern times, standing opposed to the spiritual 
tyranny of Rome, and converted into an operative 
power by the Reformation, crushed those auda- 
cious defenders of Popery. The Pope himself, 
to complete and establish the fall of his party, 
was under the necessity of authorizing the trans- 
action. Conquered by the general spirit of the 
human race, which in its progressive career brings 
the downfal of every institution by which it is 
opposed, Ganganelli, signing with, moistened eye 
the bull for the extinction of the Jesuits, was 
only the forerunner of the unfortunate Louis 
XVI, compelled, in less than twenty years after 
to detach from him his army, his nobles, and his 
guards.* It is impossible for him who meditates 

* It is with very considerable limitation indeed that the fall 
of the Pope can be compared to the fall of the monarchy in 
France. The different ravages which have been made upon 
the power of the Pope, if we except those made by the French 
revolution, have been performed coolly, and by princes and 
leading men. In France too something equally bad has been 
set up with that which was pulled down, if it be not even 
worse. Wherever the power of the Romish church has been 
destroyed, men have acquired more or less of real liberty. In 
one respect the two events may perhaps agree. As the pro- 
gress of knowledge was incompatible with the continuance of 
all ecclesiastical despotism, and by necessity works its over- 
throw ; the progress of knowledge may be held equally \vi- 



1 5$ Spirit and Influence of the 

on history to refuse his admiration to a society 
which constantly exhibited so much courage, 
unity, perseverance, and address, in its proceed- 
ings. In acknowledging the mischiefs which it 
produced he must yield a merited tribute of praise 
to the great and useful things which it atchieved. 
Its radical defect, and the cause of its destruction, 
lay in the institution itself. Designed for the 
support of the hierarchical edifice, which was 
crumbling down on every side; this last prop of a 
mighty ruin which nothing could uphold, was 
necessarily thrown down by the hand of time, 
and by opinion which directs it.* 

Very different is the aspect of the clergy in the 
countries which embraced the Reformation. The 
individuals of this body only desire to be what 

compatible with political despotism, and in the same manner 
may be expected to bring its dsti uction. 

* Some individuals, actuated by a zeal attended with very 
little knowledge, are at present making weak and vain efforts to . 
revive the order of Jesuits. They succeed not. "Moral impos- 
sibility is against them. Their order was a natural product of 
the time in which it appeared. In the present time it is a fo- 
reign and superfluous plant, which must die for want of nou- 
rishment. Our age cannot recognize the sons of Loyola as its 
children. The days of the possibility of their existence are 
past. Let them give place to the children of a new age, who 
will also pass away in their turn. Jesuits still exist in some parts 
of Poland. That country in which the Catholics found so much 
difficulty in supporting themselves against the dissenters has, 
needed them an extraordinary length of time. Author, 

2 



Reformation of Luther. log 

they may and ought to be, the ministers of the 
word of God, and the teachers of morality. 
Exempted from all obedience to any foreign 
leader, owing their subsistence to their country ; 
become husbands, fathers, citizens, they have no 
other interest than that of the state in which they 
live. It is either the prince, the magistrate, or 
the people, who elect them. Luther restored the 
Saxon church to the democracy of the primitive 
age, and the hierarchy to a system of moderate 
subordination. The churches which followed 
Calvin were constituted in a still more democra- 
tical manner. But none of them forms a civil 
corporation. Some public marks of honour and 
respect are the sole distinction of the clergy. 
According to the words of the Master, that which 
is Cesar s is given unto Cesar, by giving unto 
God that which it befits us to offer him. The 
abolition of Auricular confession was a stroke 
which cut at once the infinite ramifications by 
which the hierarchical despotism had every where 
entwined its roots, and deprived the clergy of 
their enormous influence on princes, and the great, 
on the women, and in the bosom of every family.* 

* Of all the contrivances to enthrall mankind, and to usurp 
the entire command of them, that of auricular confession ap- 
pears the most impudent and the most effectual. That one set 
of men could persuade all other men that it was their duty to 
come and reveal to them Qy^ry tiling which they had done,, and 



1 60 Spirit and Influence of the 

The external form of the church in Denmark, 
in Sweden, and in a still greater degree in Eng- 
land, remained more conformable to that of the 
Eomish hierarchy, by causes peculiar to those 
countries, and which are found in their history. 
One of the strongest of these was the attachment 
of their sovereigns to the system of episcopal 
subordination, which they considered as favour- 
able to their authority. The more purely Re- 
formed, the presbyterians and others had appeared 
sufficiently republican to alarm sovereigns at the 
consequences of this spirit intimately connected 
as it is with that of protestantism itself. The fa- 
vourite maxim of the Stuarts, No bishop, no king, is 

every thing which they meant to do, would not be credible, if 
it were not proved by the fact. This circumstance rendered 
the clergy masters of the secrets of every family. It rendered 
them too the universal advisers. When any persons intentions 
were laid before a clergyman, it was his business to explain 
what was lawful and what was not, and under this pretext to 
give what counsel he pleased. In this manner the clergy became 
masters of the whole system of human life. The two objects 
they chiefly pursued were to increase the riches of the order, 
and to gratify their senses and pride. By using all their arts to 
csjole the great and wealthy, and attacking them in moments of 
weakness, sickness, and at the hour of death, they obtained 
great and numerous bequests to the church ; by abusing the op- 
portunities they enjoyed with women, they indulged their lusts ; 
and by the direction they obtained in the management of every 
family, and of every event, they exercised their love of power, 
if thev could not draw an accession of wealth. 



Reformation of Luther. l6l 

well known.* Those kingdoms have accordingly 
retained protestant bishops,, who enjoy considerable 

* This ridiculous maxim was the invention of a ridiculous king, 
the weak and conceited James the first. Together with his 
other tyrannical maxims, it was cordially adopted by his son and 
grandsons. And according to the meaning they assigned to the 
word king and the word bishop, there might be some truth in 
the maxim. By king they understood an arbitrary monarch, in 
whose prerogative all law and government were included -, and 
by bishop they understood a person lording it over other men's 
consciences as they themselves wished to do over their lives, 
persons, and properties. ' Between two sets of this description 
there was no doubt a natural alliance. But a king, who ma- 
nages the affairs of the nation, in immediate concert with his 
people, by powers and regulations adjusted between them; 
who is regarded by the people as possessing no more power than 
is necessary for the exercise of his functions, and for their own 
good, such a king requires the assistance of no bishop to sup- 
port him in his situation. It is the clear utility of his office to 
the nation which is the ground of his security. The people as 
little think of removing him as of removing the judges of law, 
or the persons who execute their sentence on offenders ; because 
they see that his office in the same manner, and in a still higher 
degree, is necessary to the good of society. A bishop, also, 
who neither exercises, nor dares exercise any authority over 
men but that of mild persuasion ; and whose situation is such 
as almost always prevents him from using any persuasion at all, 
or from exhibiting those virtues and qualities which are calcu- 
lated to make an impression on the minds of the people, could 
be of little or no assistance to a king, if his assistance were 
wanted. While indeed he had the great instruments of super- 
stition and extermination at command, he was an awful per- 
sonage whatever qualities he might exhibit. But whenever he 

M 



162 Spirit and Influence of the 

revenues, and have certain political privileges at- 
tached to their offices, as that of being members 

was left to the moral effect of his diligence and his character, 
he was sure to lose his hold on the minds of the people, to 
permit the bonds of religion among them to relax, and to be 
superseded by those who felt a greater interest in the exercise of 
assiduity, self-denial, and those qualities by which the reve- 
rence and admiration of men are gained. It is no doubt true 
that a system of great subordination, and inequality, with gra- 
dual and arbitrary advancement, and the principal part of the 
patronage lodged in the king secures the obedience and unli- 
mited complaisance of the clergy themselves : but this advan- 
tage only extends to the gaining of so many individuals, the 
number of churchmen in the kingdom. It reaches not an inch 
farther, if the clergy retain no influence on jthe minds of the 
people. On the contrary, if they retain not an influence, it 
must have a tendency directly contrary to the power of the king, 
and a tendency of no feeble sort ; as the servility of the clergy 
must the more expose them to the contempt and indignation of 
the people ; must throw the people more devotedly into the 
arms of those who are opposed to the established clergy; that 
is, into the arms of persons who have a ground of bitterness 
against the state in observing the partiality with which the 
established teachers are treated. An established clergy, when- 
ever they cease to have the principal direction of the peoples' 
minds, are a great source of disaffection and danger in a state. 
This is an universal maxim. It is clearly founded in reason. 
And it was most eminently exemplified by the revolution in 
France. 

Another mode of stating the same maxim is, that a body of 
clergy, without subordination and inequality, that is to say, 
constituted in a form more or less republican, must nourish in 
the people a disposition averse to monarchy, and inclined to re- 



Reformation of Luther. 1 63 

of the States, or of the house of peers, &c. 
But those privileges are merely personal, and it 
would be a mistake to conclude from this that the 
clergy form a separate order in those countries.* 
In some parts of Germany, the chief directors of 
the public worship are entitled superintendants- 
generah Ecclesiastical affairs are regulated in 
courts denominated consistories. These are called 
by the sovereign ; and a layman not un frequently 
presides in them, as in the free cities, for example, 
where this office is performed by the syndic of the 
senate. 

publicanism. In order to admit this proposition we must first 
be convinced that republicanism is the best form of govern- 
ment. If this be so, it is very probable that such a clergy, who 
have no interest in disguising the truth, will not be unwilling 
to let the people perceive it. But if a mixed form of govern- 
ment; a monarchy tempered with aristocracy and democracy 
be a better form of government than republicanism, such a 
clergy have an interest equal with that of all other good men in 
its' preservation. The question then respecting a particular ar- 
rangement of the clergy for the support of government can 
only refer to a bad government. A good government supports 
itself; and that arrangement of the clergy which best promotes 
knowledge and virtue among the people, is most favourable to 
its interests. This is the only service which it requires of the 
clergy. 

* It is needless to mention the only two evangelical bi- 
shoprics of Germany, those of Osnaburg and Lubec. They 
have just been secularised in favour of the Houses to which they 
have long appertained. Author. 
M 2 



164 Spirit and Influence of the 

Every where the Protestant sovereigns have be- 
come the supreme heads of the church. This 
circumstance contributed not a little to that in- 
crease of power acquired by most of the govern- 
ments in Europe after the Reformation, an effect 
which may be traced pretty closely to that revolu*- 
tion. In Protestant countries the great vacuum 
created by the sudden extinction of all ecclesiastical 
authority and jurisdiction was immediately filled 
up by the civil power, which was augmented in 
that proportion. In Catholic countries also the 
church, under alarm and danger, yielded some 
ground to the authority of government. The 
wars, both civil and foreign, which in most states 
were the consequence of religious quarrels, af- 
forded princes afterwards an opportunity of ren- 
dering their power unlimited ; as we shall explain 
when we come to speak of each state by itself. 

Another direct consequence of the Reformation, 
and of the contentions, the actions and reactions 
to which it gave rise was the specific establishment 
of certain sects of Christianity as the predominant 
religion in countries where they had acquired 
ascendancy. Before that time, when only one 
communion was yet known, no such idea 
could be formed. Popery commanded, in fact, 
not by law. When heretics were persecuted, it 
was not by any statute of the realm ; it was upon 
a requisition of the Pope, to whom the prince 



Reformation of Luther. 165 

lent the strong hand. An effect of the jealousy 
and rival ship of different sects was to exclude 
from all offices in the state, and frequently 
even from the throne, all who professed not the 
same faith, and used not the same symbol with 
that adopted by the body of the nation, and the 
government. From this restricting spirit arose a 
new species of intolerance, hitherto preserved un- 
known, which took up a residence among the 
different Protestant communities as well as among 
the Catholics. # Hence the revocation of the 

* That the Protestants, when they first revolted against the 
Romish church, reformed, but in a very imperfect degree, the 
spirit of intolerance which prevailed in that church is suffici- 
ently known. Luther and Calvin were both persecutors. Be- 
fore, however, the Reformation any where became settled, 
such an improvement was obtained, that dissenters from the 
predominating faith were at least allowed to live in all Protes- 
tant countries -, but every where under severe restrictions and 
disqualifications. Even in this country they were excluded 
from all share in the management of the national affairs } and 
while the burthens of the state were laid equally upon them 
with others, they were not permitted to share in its honours 
and emoluments. The test laws yet exist; though under daily 
infringement 5 and an act of indemnity must every year be 
passed to save a great body of the most useful subjects' from the 
severest penalties. The practical toleration of Great Britain, 
however, if not her constitutional, is in a considerable degree 
complete. It is very remarkable, however, that in a part of the 
British empire, an empire in which knowledge of government 
and of liberty has made such unexampled progress, and in 
which liberal sentiments both in politics and religion are so pre- 



1 66 Spirit and Influence of the 

edict of Nantz, and that yoke of political non- 
entity forced upon the necks of all the citizens 
professing a different faith from that declared to 
be predominant. In some Catholic countries this 
nonentity extended even to political death. A 
Protestant could neither own property, make a 
will, nor marry and have legitimate children. He 
was even happy if dragoons were not sent in 
pursuit of him, and if he did not perish under 
their hands, or those of the executioner; for it 

eminent, in a part of this empire, almost touching the very 
center, a greater degree of intolerance, a spirit nearer that 
of absolute persecution exists than is to be found in any other 
part of Protestant Christendom. Of Ireland this is spoken, 
in which the animosity of the Protestants against the Catholics 
yet amounts to virulence and rage 5 and there is nothing at 
which they conceive more indignation than the thought of 
being obliged to live on equal terms with their Catholic brethren. 
If this proceeded from religious prejudices, our diapprobation 
might be mixed with some respect. But heaven knows Ireland 
is not the place to look for any extraordinary displays of the 
religious spirit. It is a vile political animosity by which they 
are actuated ; the offspring of the selfish and meanest passions. 
By these the Protestants are prompted to conceive every thing 
that is atrocious of the Catholics 5 to misrepresent them to the 
government here, by which they have been too often believed: 

nd when, as is very often the case, they have goaded them 
into violence by oppression, they held out these acts as sufficient 
reason to lodge in their hands powers of abusing at will a part 
of their fellow subjects, against whom they bear such resent- 
ment. Are these sentiments, is this a state of things which 

ought to be encouraged by a wise and patriotic government? 



I 



Reformation of Luther. 167 

must be owned that the Catholic states carried 
this intolerance infinitely further than the most 
intolerant of the Protestant. 

In a word, among the states of Europe which 
remained attached to the Holy See, not one can 
well be named in which it retained all its prero- 
gatives. Venice and Portugal shewed themselves 
always refractory. Spain did the same at times. 
Poland, Hungary, and Austria, saw a multitude 
of Protestants, Socinians, and Dissenters of all 
descriptions arise within them. The same was 
the case in the ecclesiastical principalities of Ger- 
many. In France, beside the great number of 
individuals who embraced the Reformation, the 
kings and parliaments, on many occasions, shewed 
themselves very little favourable to the transalpine 
pretensions. More than once did the sovereigns 
threaten to follow the example of Henry 
VIII. The undaunted Gallican church has pro- 
duced successors at various times worthy of Ger- 
son # and Richer ~\-, and far was she from forming 

* ** John Gerson, chancellor of the university of Paris, the 
most illustrious ornament that the 15 th century can boast of, a 
man of the greatest influence and authority, whom the council 
of Constance looked upon as its oracle, the lovers of liberty as 
their patron, and whose memory is yet precious to such among 
the French, as are at all zealous for the maintenance cf their 
privileges against papal despotism. This excellent man pub- 
lished a considerable number of treatises that were admirably 
adapted to reform the corruptions of a superstitious worship, to 



\6S Spirit and Influence of the 

an integral part of the patrimony of St. Peter, 
The council assembled at Trent, in order to 
reconcile the whole church of Christ, only made 
the divisions more remarkable. This assembly- 
passed a multitude of decrees, which most of the 
Catholic states adopted not but under great modi- 
fications, and which soon fell into oblivion for 
want of a power to watch over their execution. 
That council, by which all the functions of the 
Popes were to be restored, produced the book of 
Sarpi)* which did them more evil than ten 

excite a spirit of genuine piety, and to heal the wounds of a di- 
vided church: though, in some respects, he does not seem to 
have understood thoroughly the demands and injunctions of the 
Gospel of C ii R i st." Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Cent. 
XV. Part II. 

+ Edmund Richer, a doctor in the university of Paris in the 
16th century, remarkable for his strenuous opposition to the en- 
croachments made by the pontiffs on the liberties of the Galilean 
church, and for his being one of the first commentators in that 
church who followed the liberal sense, and the direct, natural 
signification of the words of scripture, in opposition to those 
who strove continually to find some mysterious and sublim 
interpretation. Baillet, Vie d' Edmund Richer. 

* The following character of this extraordinary man is by an 
author of great judgment, the late Dr. Campbell of Aberdeen, 
in his Lectures on Ecclesiastical History : 

" I cannot conclude without acquainting you what will pro- 
bably appear surprising, that, for a great part of the account 
now given; I am indebted to the writings of a Romish priest, 
Fra Faola Sarpi, the celebrated historian of the council of 
Trent, one who, in my judgment, understood more of the 



Reformation of Luther. 169 

councils could do them good. That which Sarpi 
so happily began was completed by M, de Marca, 

liberal spirit of the Gospel, and the genuine character of the 
christian institution,, than any writer of his age. Why he 
chose to continue in that communion, as I judge no man, I do 
not take upon me to say. As little do I pretend to vindicate it. 
The bishop of Meaux (Histoire des Variations des Eglises Pro- 
testantes, liv. 7me. ch. llOme.) calls him a protestant, and a 
Calvinist under a friar's frock. That he was no Calvinist, is evi- 
dent from several parts of his writings. I think it is also fairly 
deducible from these, that there was no protestant sect then in 
existence with whose doctrine his principles would have entirely 
coincided. A sense of this, as much as any thing, contributed, 
in my opinion, to make him remain in the communion to 
which he originally belonged. Certain it is, that as no man 
was more sensible of the corruptions and usurpations of that 
church, no man could, with greater plainness, express his sen- 
timents concerning them. In this he acted very differently 
from those who, from worldly motives, are led to profess what 
they do not believe. Such, the more effectually to disguise 
their hypocrisy, are commonly the loudest in expressing their 
admiration of a system which they secretly despise. This was 
not the manner of Fra Paola. The freedoms, indeed, which 
he used, would have brought him early to feel the weight of the 
church's resentment, had he not been protected by the state of 
Venice, of which he was a most useful citizen. At last, how- 
ever, he fell a sacrifice to the enemies which his inviolable re- 
gard to truth, in his conversation and writings, had procured 
him. He was privately assassinated by a fiiar, an emissary of 
the holy see. He wrote, in Italian, his native language; but 
"his works are translated into Latin, and into sevei al European 
tongues. His History of the Council of Trent, and his Trea- 
tise on ecclesiastical benefices, are both capital performances. 



] 70 Spirit and Influence of the 

archbishop of Toulouse, In his treatise De Concor- 
dia sacerdotii et imperii, and more especially by 
M. de Hontheim, suffragan bishop of Treves, in 
a work which he published under the fictitious 
name of Justinus Febronius* The successive ef- 
forts of independence made by the states of 
Christendom are connected by an uninterrupted 
chain with those of the first reformers. It is im- 
possible therefore not to regard as consequences 
of the same influence the reforms attempted, and 
in part accomplished, of the Austrian church by 
Joseph II; the spoliation also, and political ex- 
tinction of the French clergy under the consti- 
tuent assembly; and in fine, the general seculari- 
zation which has been effected in Catholic Ger- 
many.^ It is evident how easy it would be to 

One knows not, in reading them, whether to admire most the 
erudition and the penetration, or the noble freedom of spirit 
every where displayed in those works. Ail these qualities have, 
besides, the advantage of coming recommended to the reader, 
by the greatest accuracy of composition and perspicuity of 
diction. This tribute I could not avoid paying to the memory 
of an author, to whom the republic of letters is so much in- 
debted, and for whom I have the highest regard." 

* De Statu Ecclesiae et legitima potestate Romani Pontificis. 
Ad cenciliandcs dissidentes in religione Christianos. Buliione 

1763. 

t Still more important losses in that country await perhaps 
the Papal authority and the Romish clergy. What friend of 
knowledge and of human nature admires net the measures 
adopted in Bavaria by an enlightened and benevolent priuce, 



Reformation of Luther. 171 

shew that those great transactions had their re- 
mote origin in the Reformation, and that the de- 
cline of the Romish clergy, then begun, has 
been completed only in our own days. 

who is regenerating that fine country by encouraging in it 
knowledge and industry, at the expence of superstition and 
morikery? May his beneficent intentions be all happily accom- 
plished ! Immortality, which awaits him, the admiration of all 
men of worth, and the benedictions of his subjects will be his 
infallible recompense. Author. 



172 Spirit and Influence of the 



SECTION II. 

On the principal States of Christendom. 

1WO inquiries naturally suggest themselves with 
regard to this part of the subject, that concerning 
the internal situation of each state considered in 
itself, and that concerning the external situation 
of the states in regard to one another. The first 
relates to the degree of their strength, to their 
prosperity, the extent of the power of the prince, 
and of the liberty of the people ; the second re- 
gards only the system of the balance of power in- 
troduced into Europe since the Reformation. 

FIRST INQUIRY.— INTERNAL SITUATION OF THE 

STATES. 

The influence of the Reformation has been 
more remarkable in those countries in which it 
began, and was established, than in those by 
which it was rejected. With the former then it 
should seem natural, and fit to begin our investi- 
gation. 

And first let us consider their common fate, in 
so far as they are Protestant countries. 

I. The vast sums which under all sorts of pretexts 



Reformation of Luther. 173 

and titles those countries perpetually sent to Rome, 
and by which they exhausted themselves, are re- 
tained at home, circulate there, give activity to 
commerce and industry,, and create a new source 
of happiness to the people, and of strength to 
the government ; while on the other hand public 
credit is subject to momentary derangements. 
Treasures, frightened away by the prospect of 
futurity, are concealed ; coin is made to change 
its denomination. The frequency of emigration, 
the insecurity of property, a consequence of the 
insecure ascendancy of parties, sinks the value of 
land. Silver, more exportable, is more valued. 
But at the same time man himself acquires a 
greater value than either of those commodities. 
His intrinsic worth, far more important, is better 
perceived, and becomes the highest prized of all * 
human possessions. This is one of the happiest 
effects of those terrible commotions, which, dis- 
placing property, the offspring of social institutions, 
leave in its room only the virtues and talents of 
the mind, the offspring of nature. 

The immense possessions of the clergy, as well 
secular as regular, are placed at the disposal of 
governments. These in general wisely profit by 
this good fortune; pay their debts, fill their cof- 
fers, apply large portions of the newly gotten 
wealth to useful establishments; to schools, uni- 
versities, hospitals, houses for the rearing of or- 



i?4 Spirit and Influence of the 

phans, and for the reception and maintenance of 
old servants of the state ; uses by which those 
possessions are restored to their original destina- 
tion. And finally those governments place them- 
selves in a condition to support the wars in which 
the existing crisis must infallibly involve them. 
Some of them, however, dissipate inconsiderately 
the wealth acquired. Others are constrained to 
abandon the greater part of it to the nobility, 
as Denmark, of which more will be spoken 
hereafter.* 

* There is no country into which the Reformation was intro- 
duced, in which the clergy were not stripped of the whole or 
a great part of their wealth. Even in England, where the 
hierarchy was preserved, the revenues of the monasteries which 
were seized upon by the crown amounted to one-twentieth part 
of the national income; and besides this a considerable part of 
the beneiices of the whole kingdom, with the tythes annexed 
to them, were wrested from the church. In Scotland, the 
whole property of the church was confiscated, and the most 
moderate salaries appointed to the Protestant teachers of reli- 
gion. These alienations we have never heard represented as re- 
markable evils. We have never been accustomed to regard 
them as such. We have always considered them as parts of a 
most important and necessary reform, not on every occasion, 
perhaps not on any occasion, conducted with all the wisdom 
which might be wished, but on all occasions productive of a 
better state of things than that which it removed. It is re- 
markable how passion and prejudice will sometimes blind the 
eyes of the most intelligent men. The confiscation of the 
property of the church in France by the constituent assembly 
was not in fact different from that every where produced by the 

9 



Reformation of Luther. }J5 

Not only do the governments dispose of the 
wealth of the church ; they find themselves also 

Reformation,, except that it was more complete than at least in 
every instance under the Reformation. On this occasion, how- 
ever, Mr. Burke is perfectly frantic. It was an act fit to blot 
out the sun. It will be instructive to compare his reflections on 
this subject with those which every one has made to himself on 
the similar transactions in England, Scotland, Holland, Ger- 
many, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland, in the sixteenth 
century. 

« It is with the exultation of a little national pride I tell you, 
that those amongst us who have wished to pledge the societies of 
Paris in the cup of their abominations, have been disappointed. 
The robbery of your church has proved a security to the pos- 
sessions of ours. It has roused the people. They see with 
horror and alarm that enormous and shameless act of proscrip- 
tion. It has opened, and will more and more open their eyes 
upon the selfish enlargement of mind, and the narrow liberality 
of sentiment of insidious men, which commencing in close 
hypocrisy and fraud have ended in open violence and rapine. 
At home we behold similar beginnings. We are on our guard 
against similar conclusions. 

" I hope we shall never be so totally lost to all sense of the 
duties imposed upon us by the law of social union, as, upon 
any pretext of public service, to confiscate the goods of a single 
unoffending citizen. Who but a tyrant (a name expressive of 
every thing which can vitiate and degrade human nature) could 
think of seizing on the property of men, unaccused, unheard-, 
untried, by whole descriptions, by hundreds and thousands to- 
gether ? who that had not lost every trace of humanity could 
think of casting down men of exalted rank and sacred function, 
some of them of an age to call at once for reverence and com- 
passion, of casting them down from the highest situation in the 



1/6 Spirit and Influence of the 

entrusted with the disposal of the wealth, the 
persons, and whole power of their people. The 

commonwealth, wherein they were maintained by their own 
landed property, to a state of indigence, depression and 
contempt ? 

" The confiscators truly have made some allowance to their 
victims from the scraps and fragments of their own tables from 
which they have been so harshly driven, and which have been 
so bountifully spread for a feast to the harpies of usury'. But 
to drive men from independence to live on alms is itself great 
cruelty. That which might be a tolerable condition to men in 
one state of life, and not habituated to other things, may, when 
all these circumstances are altered, be a dreadful revolution -, 
and one to which a virtuous mind would feel pain in condemning 
any guilt except that which should demand the life of the of- 
fender. But to many minds this punishment of degradation 
and infamy is worse than death. Undoubtedly it is an infinite 
aggravation of this cruel suffering, that the persons who were 
taught a double prejudice in favour of religion, by education 
and by the place they held in the administration of its functions, 
are to receive the remnants of their property as alms from the 
profane and impious hands of those who had plundered them of 
all the rest -, to receive (if they are at all to receive) not from 
the charitable contributions of the faithful, but from the insolent 
tenderness of known and avowed Atheism, the maintenance of 
religion, measured out to them on the standard of the contempt 
in which it is held: and for the purpose of rendering those who 
receive the allowance vile and of no estimation in the eyes of 
mankind. 

" But this act of seizure of property, it seems, is a judg- 
ment in law, and not a confiscation. They have, it seems, 
found out in the academies of the Palais Royale, and the Ja- 
cobins, that certain men had no right to the possessions which 

2 



Reformation of Luther. \jj 

cause of religion has become that of every indi- 
vidual. The resources which this state of mind 



they held under law*, usage, the decisions of courts, and the 
accumulated prescription of a thousand years. They say that 
ecclesiastics are fictitious persons, creatures of the state ; whom 
at pleasure they may destroy, and of course limit and modify in 
every particular ; that the goods they possess are not properly 
theirs, but belong to the state which created the fiction ; . and 
we are therefore not to trouble ourselves with what they may 
suffer in their natural feelings and natural persons, on account 
of what is done towards them in this their constructive cha- 
racter. Of what import is it, under what names you injure 
men, and deprive them of the just emoluments of a profession, 
in which they were not only permitted but encouraged by the 
state to engage y and upon the supposed certainty of which 
emoluments they had formed the plan of their lives, contracted 
debts, and led multitudes to an entire independence upon 
them ? 

" You do not imagine, Sir, that I am going to compliment 
this miserable distinction of persons with any long discussion. 
The arguments of tyranny are as contemptible as its force is 
dreadful. Had not your confiscators by their early crimes ob- 
tained a power which secures indemnity to all the crimes of 
which they have since been guilty, or that they can commit, it 
is not the syllogism of the logician but the lash of the execu- 
tioner that would have refuted a sophistry which becomes an ac- 
complice of theft and murder. The sophistic tyrants of Paris 
are loud in their declamations against the departed regal tyrants 
who in former ages have vexed the world. They are thus 
bold, because they are safe from the dungeons and iron cages o£ 
their old masters. Shall we be more tender of the tyrants of 
our own time, when we see them acting worse tragedies under 
our eyes ? shall we not use the same liberty that they do, when 

N 



178 Spirit and Influence of the 

affords to rulers are incalculable. The effects 
which it is capable of producing were seen in the 
first war against Charles V, and afterwards in the 
war of thirty years against the two Ferdinands. 
What the most imminent danger of the state 
could not have obtained from individuals, zeal for 
religion obtained with ease. For this, artists, 
burghers, peasants, ran to arms; and not one of 
them thought of murmuring at taxes, thrice as 
heavy as those sustained before. In the violent 
agitation into which the danger of religion threw 
the mind, people offered goods and life, and they 
perceived not the efforts or the burthens with 
which they would have considered themselves op- 
pressed in a more calm situation. The fear of 
beholding an inquisition, a St. Bartholomew, 
opened to the league of Smalcalde, to the Prince 
of Orange, to Queen Elizabeth, to Admiral Co- 
ligny, sources of power which had remained shut 
in any other situation of affairs, 

we can use it with the same safety ? when to speak honest truth 

only requires a contempt of the opinions of those whose action? 
we abhor?" Rerlec. on Rev. in France. 

The very- same invectives, word for word, may be poured 
upon those who established the Reformation in every country in 
Europe. They were poured with equal fury by the patrons of 
the ancient abuses. The Reformation, however, has stood; 
and posterity, more enlightened, acknowledges the merits of it? 
early pro-meters, 

4 



Reformation of Luther. 1*9 

When once a people have, with full accord, 
with enthusiasm, and during several successive 
generations, made common cause with their so- 
vereigns, there arises hence a public spirit of union 
and harmony between the people and the govern- 
ment, between the head and the members, which is 
salutary to the country, and which is sometimes 
preserved for several centuries together* It is im- 
possible for a near observer not to perceive this 
principle in the Protestant states ; and their his- 
tory, that of Prussia in particular, presents more 
instances than one in which it has been remark- 
ably displayed. 

But if a Protestant prince, by his new character 
of head of the church, and by the confidence of 
his people, consolidated and strengthened his 
power, the nature of the movement by which this 
authority was placed in his hands directed him 
to use it in the most lawful and equitable manner. 
He was strengthened only for the purpose of 
serving and defending the nation, not of oppressing 
it. The most profound observers have remarked 
that nature has particularly disposed the people of 
the north for being republicans \ and it cannot be 
denied that several of those nations which embraced 
the Reformation, as the Saxons, the Swiss, the 
Dutch and the English, have always appeared 
animated with that spirit ; of which the Reformat 
tion itself indeed was only a positive atchieve- 

N 2 



J SO Spirit and Influence of the 

ment.* By that concussion, in its turn, all the 
energy of the original sentiment, and all the 

* A confession to this effect is even extorted from Mr. 
Hume. 

" In that great revolution of manners which happened during 
the sixteenth and the seventeenth century, the only nations 
who had the honourable, though often melancholy advantage, 
of making an effort for their expiring privileges, were such as, 
together with the principles of civil liberty, were animated 
with a zeal for religious parties and opinions. Besides the ir- 
resistible force of standing armies, the European princes pos- 
sessed this advantage, that they were descended from the an- 
cient royal families ; that they continued the same appellations 
of magistrates, the same appearance of civil government 5 and 
restraining themselves by all the forms of legal administration, 
could insensibly impose the yoke on their unguarded subjects. 
Even the German nations, who formerly broke the Roman 
chains, and restored liberty to mankind, now lost their own li- 
berty, and saw with grief the absolute authority of their 
princes firmly established among them. In their circumstances, 
nothing but a pious zeal, which disregards all motives of human 
prudence, could have made them entertain hopes of preserving 
any longer those privileges which their ancestors, through so 
many ages, had transmitted to them. 

" As the house of Austria, throughout all her extensive do- 
minions, had ever made religion the pretence for her usurpations, 
she now met with resistance from a like principle; and the 
Catholic religion, as usual, had ranged itself on the side of 
monarchy; the Protestant, on that of liberty. The states of 
Bohemia, having taken arms against the emperor Matthias, 
continued their revolt against his successor Ferdinand, and 
claimed the observance of all the edicts enacted in favour of the 
new religion, together with the restoration of their . ancient 



Reformation of Luther. 3 81 

ideas with which it is associated, were awakened. 
The will to be free in matters of conscience is the 
same at bottom with the will to be free in matters 
of state. Now this will is every thing ; and 
there are no slaves but those who will to be so, 
or who have not the courage to will the termina- 
tion of their slavery. It is the energy of mind by 
which in the long run all despotism is erected. 
The constitution of England has been much ad- 
mired. I have no intention to dispute its value ; 
but what renders that heterogeneous compound 
so excellent is the patriotism, the pride, and in- 
dependence of the English peasant, burgher, 
and gentleman. Introduce into all these hearts, 
which beat with liberty, the sentiments of slaves, 
and you will see of what advantage, that fine 
palladium, the constitution, will be found. # / 
Prussia and Denmark have neither parliaments, 

laws and constitution. The neighbouring principalities, Silesia, 
Moravia, Lusatia, Austria, even the kingdom of Hungary took 
part in the quarrel j and throughout all these populous and mar- 
tial provinces, the spirit of discord and civil war had universally 
diffused itself." Hist, of Eng. c. 48. 

* The bosom of an Englishm n justly swells with pride to \ 
hear these praises extorted from all disinterested foreigners, of 
that manly and independent spirit with which he has at all times 
resisted oppression, and vindicated his rights. Long may that 
spirit continue to actuate himj and far be from him the hour of 
belling his birthright, either through sottish indifference, mean / 
fear, or execrable cupidity ! 



i 62 Spirit and Influence of the 

nor any other visible barrier to the power of their 
kings; and yet the most admirable liberty is en- 
joyed in those countries.* There, however, the 
invisible barrier exists in every heart, in that of 
the prince himself, who is nursed and reared in the 
spirit which animates the nation ; it exists in the 
manners, which continue simple and unadulterated 
with pomp and insolence. There, potent sove- 
reigns are to be seen, clothed like their subjects, 
walking like their subjects on foot, or attended 
with the simplest equipage, without retinue, with- 
out etiquette ; mere officers in their youth in the 
national army which they must learn one day to 
command. What kingdom in modern times can 
boast of such a monarch as the immortal Frederic 
II ? What nations can boast of an union of 
princes as eminent and wise as the Protestant 
communities of Germany? Two extraordinary wo- 
men, during the latter ages, have been found on 
the thrones of Europe ; Elizabeth and Catharine. 
Both of them were reared in the Protestant prin- 
ciples. Can France,, too^ forget that the best of 

* This representation is by far too favourable, particularly in 
regard to Prussia, where the government is despotical, not only 
in power but in exercise. The government of Denmark is 
truly mild, where, at the same time that the power of the king 
is restrained by the power of the aristocracy, the lower orders 
are more independent of the higher, and in happier circun> 
stances than in almost any other part of the continent. 



Reformation of Luther. ] 83 

her kings, and the best minister of that king, 
were pupils of the Reformation ? 

Having been led to speak of this disposition of 
the public mind among the Protestant people, 
ought I here to introduce what I have to advance 
on the steps which among them have been made 
in the science of legislation, and the other 
branches of knowledge connected with it, as that 
of executive administration, statistics, <kc; or 
shall I reserve those topics for the chapter in which 
I must treat of the progress of knowledge ? The 
doubts I feel on this subject prove that the things 
which relate to man in society, are all united to- 
gether by the closest ties; and that the great 
concern of his liberty is intimately connected 
with the culture of his mind. 

Let it suffice then, at present, to observe that 
the authority of the church, before the Reforma- 
tion, being strictly conjoined with the authority 
of the state in some places, and in others alto- 
gether confounded with it, it was impossible to 
examine and discuss the rights of the one with- 
out extending the investigation also to the other. 
Men inquired by what authority the popes pre- 
tended to raise up and cast down kings; and this 
naturally conducted to the inquiry, by what au- 
thority kings were originally set up ? When the 
respective rights of the church and state were 
discussed; it was difficult, from this important 



184 Spirit and Influence of *the 

topic, not to turn sometimes to the rights of the 
people. It was ascertained that the community, 
regarded as a religious association, that is to say, 
as a church, had a right to chuse its own pastors, 
and to draw up its own creed: It was most natu- 
ral from this to conclude that the same commu- 
nity, as a political association, had a right to elect 
its own magistrates, and to form its own consti- 
tution. The emperor opposed the new religious 
creed: Men then inquired if, in matters of faith, 
they ought to obey the emperor? In 1531 the 
faculties of law and theology in the university of 
Wittemberg answered unanimously in the nega- 
tive. From that time all discussion turned only 
on the limits of that obedience which is due to 
sovereigns, and of that resistance which may be 
opposed to them. Zuinglius pronounced his rigid 
sentence against the oppressor, cum Deo potest 
deponi. Such a language, before Luther, had 
never dared to be spoken explicitly and aloud in 
Europe. He feared not to utter great truths, and 
he set many others in the same road. The 
writings on politics of the first Reformers breathe 
in general this spirit. * When the long wars of 

* Luther himself says in his book o?i the -war against the 
Turks j " No one had yet taught or heard, no one knew any- 
thing about the secular power j whence it was derived, what 
was i ; s object, or how it could be acceptable to Gob. Persons 
of the greatest learning regarded the temporal power as a pro- 



Reformation of Luther. J83j 

Germany and Flanders were terminated the same 
spirit displayed itself in various works of merit, 
reckoned classical at this day, and in which the 
rights of the two powers, the rights of the prince 
and those of the people, and the rights of the 

fane and sublunary thing, nay as pagan and impious, and 
dangerous towards salvation. In a word, the good princes 
and lords, prone as they were to piety, accounted their state 
and dignity as less than nothing, and far from agreeable to God ; 
and hence became priests and monks in every thing but the 
hood,*** Besides this, the pope and the clergy were all in all, 
above all and over all, as God himself in the world 3 and the 
civil authority was thrown into the back ground, oppressed, 
and unknown.*** At present they accuse me of being a sedi- 
tious person, because, forsooth, I have written en the secular 
power wisely and usefully, and so as no doctor since the time 
of the apostles, unless perhaps St. Augustin. This is what I 
can declare with a good conscience., and of which the world 
can bear me witness." Author. 

Luther has indeed the merit of being the very first man who 
wrote with freedom on politics in modern Europe, and set a 
most important example of the application of the natural reason 
of men to the business of government, as well as to the con-: 
cerns of religion. With what noble success has this example 
been followed ? And what advantage do the nations at this mo- 
ment derive from the light thrown upon the nature of govern- 
ment by the discoveries and disclosures of private individuals? 
It is worthy of attention that every thing, almost without ex- 
ception, which has been done to illustrate the principles of 
government, and to point out the best modes of governing 
men, has been done not by men engaged in government, but 
by private individuals. 

2 



1 86 Spirit and Influence of. the 

bodies politic toward one another are discussed 
with a precision and a spirit, very different both 
from the ancient spirit of the schools and from 
the demccratical exaggerations of the 18th cen- 
tury, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, England, 
and France herself, in which the Reformation 
made great progress, though it was not embraced 
by the government, produced a number of similar 
works about this period. We shall mention some 
of the principal hereafter in one of the articles 
of the second section. 

The Reformation then, which at first was a 
recurrence to liberty only in religious things, be- 
came by all these causes a recurrence to liberty 
in political things also. Princes supported them- 
selves by this liberty, aspired to it, and embraced 
it as well as their people. Accordingly Protestant 
princes have always used a very different language 
towards their people, and have professed very 
different principles of liberality and humanity 
from those of the Catholic sovereigns their co- 
temporaries.* Of this the Prussian code is a 

* This is a very remarkable fact. It is confirmed by every 
part of the history of Europe since the time of the Reformation. 
It is a striking proof of what sovereigns themselves may be- 
come in the midst of a truly enlightened arid spirited people. 
The cordial co-operation of princes in establishing that order of 
things which is most conducive to the interests of man, from 
what we have seen them already capable of doing, is by no 



Reformation of Luther. 187 

conspicuous monument, and undoubtedl they 
finest system of laws, of which any modern na- 
tion can boast.* In this code we find the sub-^ 
stance and principles of those famous Rights of 
Man, which in 17 89 appeared in France so great 
a novelty, and produced such an explosion,-^ In 

means to be despaired of. Those who set the first and the 
greatest example will illustrate their name above all their pre- 
decessors. This is the species of heroism which alone now re- 
mains for princes to display. It is unspeakably the greatest 
and most glorious. The admiration of it will last and grow to 
all posterity. 

* We have already had occasion to remark the terms of ex- 
aggerated praise in which our author is disposed to speak of 
Prussia. The jurisprudence of the Prussian code is certainly 
good 3 the principles of equity between man and man are stated 
with precision and simplicity ; and it has infinite advantages 
over those codes which consist of vast and unmanageable accu- 
mulations of cases. and precedents. It certainly however does 
not surpass, if it equal, the simplicity and precision of the Da- 
nish code. Besides all this the constitution of the courts of 
law is bad 5 the judges are dependent not only upon the king, 
but in some measure upon the great men j they have no juries 
in Prussia ; and no man but would trust his life and property in 
an English court, on all trying occasions, rather than in a 
Prussian, notwithstanding the defects of our code. Not to 
mention that the king is master of the law ; and though the 
practice and spirit of the country retain him within certain 
bounds, exerts an arbitrary power which sets liberty in Prussia 
out of the question. 

f Hence the eccentricity truly ridiculous of our demagogues 
of 1793 and I79h who fancied they had discovered things 



188 Spirit and Influence of the 

Protestant nations the people have long been fa- 
miliar with this language, and with these princi- 
ples. They know them to form the foundation 
of their government ; and are accustomed to the 
discussion of such matters. It excites no extra- 
ordinary emotion among them. The liberty of 
thought and writing is as natural to them as the 
air they breathe. This may reasonably lead us to 
conclude that a revolution, similar to that in 
France, can never have place in the countries 
which are not Catholic. The most essential re- 
sults of such a revolution are there previously 
established, and cupidity cannot be thrown into 
action by the temptation of the riches of the 
clergy. Accordingly no people are more submis- 
sive to their princes and the laws of their country 
than the Protestants, because these laws are of 
an excellent nature, and both princes and subjects 
are equally patriotic and republican; 

It is asserted that Francis the First shewed him- 
self at the beginning rather favourable to the doc 

unknown, and unheard of by the rest of the world. Like 
scholars who are tempted to make a parade of the most com- 
mon notions which they have just received, our jacobins wanted 
to make a present by violence of their mode of being free to 
other nations. But in several of those nations the cause was 
already tried j and the people knew the moderate and middle 
course which it was proper to hold between speculative and 
practical democracy. Author. 



Reformation of Luther. 1 89 

trines of the Reformers. His favourite sister 
Margaret, queen of Navarre, openly protected 
them. The fate of the kingdom depended at 
chat moment on the determination he was to 
make. Had he adopted the Reformation, France 
without doubt would have followed him; the fate 
of protestantism in Europe would have been 
sooner decided ; the civil wars in France would 
certainly have been prevented, as well as the re- 
volution of the 1 8th century. Every thing as- 
sumed a different appearance, because he con- 
ceived violent apprehensions with regard to the 
political consequences of the Reformation. Bran- 
tome relates that one day when the king was con- 
versing on this subject, the following expression 
escaped from him; " These novelties tend to no- 
thing less than the overthrow of all monarchy 
divine and human." In fact, that prince after- 
wards displayed against protestantism an irrecon- 
cilable hatred, which his successors inherited but 
too completely; the lesson was not lost.* But if 

* Was not this opinion of Francis the result of ecclesiasti- 
cal suggestions ? That king (says the president Renault, for the 
year 1534) complaining of the pope to his nuncio, and hinting 
at the example of Henry VIII, the nuncio replied ; « To 
speak freely, sire, you would he the first' sufrerer yourself: a 
new religion introduced among a people only requires after- 
wards the change of the prince:'— Francis might have replied 
that neither Henry VIII, Gustavus Vasa, nor any of the 



1 Q0 Spirit and Influence of the 

such was the opinion of Francis the First, and if it 
Is to be regarded as just, may not the French re- 
Saxon princes had been dethroned after having embraced the 
Reformation. Author. 

The difference in the destiny of France occasioned by this 
single circumstance ought deeply to arrest the attention of the 
contemplative statesman. Had Francis First embraced the 
Keformation, his descendents, instead of wandering as fugitives 
about Europe, would in all probability at this hour have inhe- 
rited a free and nourishing kingdom in peace and security. 
How wonderfully short-sighted the policy of Francis ! that very 
event which he wanted to avert by confirming popery he 
brought about; and that state of things, the continuance of 
which he wished to ensure by removing Protestantism, Pro- 
testantism would have most probably preserved. The vast 
wealth of the clergy would have been reduced to moderation, 
most probably to the slender salaries of parish ministers, as the 
Protestants of France were all Presbyterians; the great influ- 
ence of the clergy, by which the king was so powerfully sup- 
ported in establishing despotism, would have been removed, 
and the new spirit of liberty infused into the people would have 
rendered important reforms unavoidable; the lower orders 
would have been emancipated from their dependence upon the 
great lords ; trade and manufactures, which made such progress 
among the Hugonots, would not have been extinguished by 
the revocation of the edict of Nantz, but would have advanced 
to the greatest height. France was in circumstances fully as 
favourable for all the happy products of freedom at the time of 
the Reformation as England ; and the same career of prospe- 
rity and glory would in all probability have awaited her. A 
mixed and limited monarchy would have been established; the 
people would have been prosperous and contented; and all the 
horrible effects of the revolution, and all the alarm which it 



Reformation of Luther. JQ\ 

volution be considered as a remote but necessary 
consequence of the Reformation, of which the 
republic of the United Provinces was an imme- 
diate consequence, and that of America one less 
remote than our times ? We find among' some of 
the extravagant sects produced by the Reforma- 
tion, as that of the Anabaptists, the same pre- 

has created in Europe would have been prevented. It is diffi- 
cult to say how universally the Reformation itself would have 
been extended by the influence of that country, situated in the 
heart of Europe, and so much an object of admiration to all its 
neighbours. In all probability Spain, notwithstanding her 
bigotry, would not have resisted the effects of contiguity, aided 
by the prospect of the prosperity which France would then 
have exhibited. It is indeed difficult to say to what extent 
Francis, aided by that animation of his subjects, and that union 
with their prince which was the consequence of the Reforma- 
tion in all the Protestant countries, would have been able to 
limit and circumscribe the power of Charles V. It is ra- 
ther certain that the ascendancy which, by the great weight of 
Francis, the association of Protestant princes would have gained, 
would have given so much confidence and strength to the prin- 
ciples of disaffection which were every where spread against 
the Romish church that a general Reformation would have been 
the necessary consequence. It may be safely asserted that the 
descendents of Francis are now eating the bitter fruits of his il- 
liberal policy. How much resembling the spirit of that policy 
are many things which we have seen and heard within a few 
late years ! It is however fast hastening away ; and it is to be 
hoped that the re-action which it meets with from the necessary 
course of things will not produce any more of those violent 
explosions, the evil effects of which are so long felt. 



• i Q2 Spirit and Influence of the 

tensions to absolute equality and liberty as those 
which gave occasion to all the excesses of the 
jacobins in France. Agrarian laws, the plunder 
of the rich, formed part of their doctrine also ; 
and on their standards might have been already 
written, war with castles, and peace with cottages. 
These enthusiasts created at first no little trouble 
to the princes of Germany. Luther experienced 
the most violent grief at their excesses; and often 
reproached himself with having, though inno- 
cently, given occasion to them. They were soon 
however repressed. England did not so hastily 
deliver herself from the disorders occasioned by 
her Presbyterians and Independents, as will be 
seen in the article relating to that country, to 
which we shall shortly proceed. 

It is material further to add that the Protestant 
"princes and states all gained more or less by the 
persons and industry of a multitude of proscribed 
Protestants, who emigrated from the Catholic 
countries in which they were persecuted, as hap- 
pened particularly to those of France on the re- 
vocation of the edict of Nantz; while the Ca- 
tholics, who were tranquil and tolerated under 
the dominion of the Protestants, never thought 
of quitting and impoverishing their country. 

We may also remark, that agriculture and in- 
dustry in Protestant countries were greatly aided 
by the suppression of a multitude of festival days, 




Reformation of Luther, ]g3 

lost to business in Catholic countries; negative 
quantities truly in the sum of national labour and 
riches. 

GERMANY. 

Before the Reformation the empire of Ger- 
many was an irregular collection of states, which 
accident, convenience, events had united into an 
ill formed confederacy; and the constitution of 
which was a real chaos. The power of all these 
different states, without direction, without unity, 
was insignificant in their confederate capacity, 
and incapable of a foreign application. The golden 
bull, that strange monument of the fourteenth 
century, fixed, it is true, a few relations of the 
head with the members; but nothing could be 
more indistinct than the public law of all those 
states; independent, though at the same time 
united. The personal character and power of the 
emperor were the sole motives which in general 
determined the degree of deference which the 
other princes paid him. During the long reign of 
the indolent Frederic III, known by the title 
of pacific, who slept on the imperial throne from 
1440 to 1492, that throne lost almost all its con- 
sideration. Maximilian the First found great diffi- 
culty in restoring it, notwithstanding all the ef- 
forts he employed. Among all the electors and 
other leading princes, none was of importance 

O 



k 

1Q4 Spirit and Influence of the 

enough to command the respect of foreign powers. 
All lived in their own countries rather as private 
gentlemen and masters of families than as sove- 
reigns, and were only the richest proprietors in 
their provinces. There was no probability that in 
the bosom of this general lethargy any of the 
reigning families should contrive to raise itself 
above the others. Each prince divided his states 
among his sons, often sufficiently numerous ; 
which weakened the dynasty instead of strengthen- 
ing it. No territory was indivisible, but such 
as had particularly annexed to it the electoral dig- 
nity. From these partitions and other causes, 
wars between one prince and other, disorders 
and troubles arose to which it w T as difficult to put 
an end. Younger brothers whose portions had 
been small, and private gentlemen, engaged in 
depredations which at present would meet with 
the severest punishment, but to which at that 
time was annexed some sort of chivalrous honour. 
Nothing could be weaker than a bodv so consti- 
tuted. A diet, it is true, was assembled to de- 
liberate on the common affairs ; but Frederic had 
never appeared in it during more than half a cen- 
tury in which he had reigned ; and Maximilian his 
son appeared there only to ask money, of which 
he was always in want for the execution of his 
numerous projects. Had not the Turks, at that 
time the violent enemies of all Christendom, come, 



Reformation of Luther. 1Q5 

during the first years of the reign of Frederic, to 
plant the crescent in Europe, and menaced inces- 
santly the empire with invasion, it is not easy to 
see how the feeble tie which bound that body to- 
gether could have remained unbroken. The ter- 
ror inspired by Mahomet II and his ferocious 
soldiers was the first common interest which led 
the princes of Germany to units themselves to 
one another, and around the imperial throne. 

It was in these circumstances that Charles, al- 
ready master of the flourishing kingdom of Spain, 
of a part of Italy, of the states of the house of 
Burgundy and >oi* the house of Austria, obtained 
possession of that throne. The extraordinary 
power of the new emperor soon excited uneasi- 
ness in most of the states respecting their future 
existence, menaced by the ambition of their young 
sovereign. The Reformatton held out to them a 
rallying point, new powers, and the means of 
forming: a respectable opposition. They embraced 
it as much from those political motives as from 
religious persuasion. Charles V rejected it, and 
on his part regarded it merely as a happy cir- 
cumstance which, affording him a pretext for at- 
tacking by force of arms the new opposition, pre : ^ 
sented the finest opportunity for realizing his de- 
signs in a plausible manner and with the greatest 
ease. This is the leading idea which forms as it 
were the plan of the whole history of his reign, 

o 2 



2 gQ Spirit and Influence of the 

The Protestant princes and states solemnly bound 
themselves together in a sort of particular diet at 
Smalcalde, under the direction of the two most 
considerable princes of the league; Frederic the 
wise, elector of Saxony, the protector of Luther, 
and his first disciple among sovereigns; and Phi- 
lip, landgrave of Hesse,, entitled the generous* 

* It is not, perhaps, necessary to inquire very scrupulously, 
with regard to the actions of public men, in how great a degree 
their conduct was influenced by reason, and in how great a de- 
gree by feeling, when their feelings and reason were both car- 
ried in the same direction. That it was altogether the interest 
of those confederate princes to combine together against the 
emperor, is abundantly evident} and that their eyes could not 
long have remained shut to that interest, though they had not 
ceased to be Catholics. It is not to be doubted, however, that 
their ceasing to be Catholics led them sooner to perceive that 
interest, and led them to a clearer and stronger view of it. It 
is not doubtful too that, the ardour and union of their people 
in one interesting cause afforded them means of action infi- 
nitely beyond what they could, in any other circumstances, 
have commanded. But all these motives would probably have 
failed in giving them courage to face the mighty danger, and 
to brave the gigantic power of their master, if their own minds 
had not been inflamed, and if their imaginations, as well as 
those of their people, had not been touched with that enthu- 
siasm which, whether in matters religious or political, disre- 
gards all difficulties, and springs directly from the wish to the 
accomplishment. It is true therefore in one sense that political 
motives induced the princes of Germany to support the Re- 
formation. Because without those political motives the reli- 
gious ones would probably have been too feeble to induce them 



Reformation of Luther. \QJ 

Long did that league stand in the presence of 
Charles in a proud and independent attitude. 
What prevented the rupture from being sooner 
made were the continual attacks as well of the 
French, the Venetians, the Milanese, and the 
Popes, as of the Turks under Soliman II, 
which gave the emperor sufficient employment in 
the south and east. The Protestants during that 
interval exacted of the emperor frequent conces- 
sions; and Charles, who had need of them, was 
obliged to submit to the greater number. 

At last the moment arrived, (in 1 546, the very 
year of Luther's death, who had exerted continual 
-efforts to avert any bloody catastrophe,) when 
Charles, disengaged from all his other enemies, 
might commence his conflict with the Protestant 
party. At first it was favourable to him. The 
power and military talents of the confederate 
princes did not correspond to their courage ; and 
the brilliant victory of Muhlberg, in the second 
year of the war, in which the chief of them were 
taken prisoners, seemed to bring it to a period. 
But scarcely had Charles begun to enjoy his tri- 
umph, when Maurice of Saxony, by a blow 

to risk so much. But it is equally true that religious motives 
were the cause of their resolution ; as the political ones without 
these would also have been too feeble. It is to the happy com^, 
bination of both that we owe the blessings of the Reforma- 
tion. 



198 Spirit and Lifluence of the 

equally impossible to be foreseen and prevented, 
snatched from him the laurels which he had just 
gathered, as well as almost all the rest which he 
had collected in his laborious career. It was by a 
narrow escape that the Saxon prince missed ob- 
taining possession even of the person of the em- 
peror in Inspruck. This monarch himself by the 
peace signed at Passau in 1552, confirmed more 
than ever the existence of the evangelical body, 
and saw the fine projects he had formed of bring- 
ing Germany under his controul vanish. Henry 
II, king of France, who had assisted the Pro- 
testants in that war, assumed publicly the title 
of protector of the Germanic liberty and avenger 
of the captive princes. By aid of those civil dis- 
turbances in the empire he took possession also of 
the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. 
Charles lost not an instant to assist and recover 
those cities. He failed before Metz; and this 
was one of the last reverses of fortune which he 
experienced. 

Germany was now very different from what 
Germany was before that crisis. Its ancient in- 
dolence was changed into an active vigilance. The 
confederated princes had made trial of their 
strength, and acquired confidence in themselves. 
The general union of the empire still subsisted ; 
but it was composed of two opposite parties, jea- 
lous of one another, both enjoying a constitu^ 



Reformation of Luther : . \QQ 

tional existence, watching one another, and al- 
ways on the point of carrying their animosities to 
extremity. This open enmity, this reciprocal irri- 
tation became a new principle of life to the whole 
body, and called forth all its powers. In spite of 
the peace (too speedy to be thoroughly secure) 
the empire exhibited a picture of the ocean, the 
waves of which are still terrible after a tempest. 
The universal agitation foreboded a succeeding 
storm; and undoubtedly it would be an historical 
phenomenon almost inexplicable that till l6i8 
that storm was retarded, if the personal character 
of three emperors, who succeeded Charles V, 
did not assist us in discovering the causes. 

At last Ferdinand II, on ascending the im- 
perial throne found already kindled that destruc- 
tive war which lasted during the whole cf his 
reign, and the greater part of that of his suc- 
cessor. Austria availed herself of her open rup- 
ture with the Protestant party, of her frequent 
successes, and the presence of her armies to anni- 
hilate the arch-duchy, Silesia, Moravia, the pri- 
vileges antecedently accorded to the numerous 
Protestants who more than once had given un- 
easiness to their jealous sovereigns, and the privi- 
leges which belonged to the states, and mitigated 
the rigour of the constitution. She accomplished 
the same object in Bohemia and Hungary, where 
she not only destroyed all religious liberty, but 



200 Spirit and Influence of the 

usurped as an hereditary possession the crown, 
elective till that epoch. It is to the Reformation 
that the Austrian monarchs are indebted for the 
final establishment of their real powers; for the 
hope which they were obliged to abandon of ruling 
over other states abroad was certainly not worth 
the real advantage of being absolute and unlimited 
masters in their own dominions, and of acquiring 
in perpetual patrimony two kingdoms to such a 
degree inexhaustible in resources and natural 
riches. The fate of Bohemia was decided in 1(320, 
after the bloody battle of Prague. That of Hun- 
gary indeed was not finally determined till sixty 
years after ; but was no less an immediate conse- 
quence of the religious war, and of the oppression 
of the Protestant party in that country.* After 

* Whether the establishment of Austrian despotism would 
or would not have been effected by other means, certain it is 
that immediate occasion was given to it by the Reformation. 
And this is a remarkable instance of that mixture of evil with 
good which commonly attends the noblest of human transac- 
tions. We are not masters of consequences and events. And 
if we were to impose it upon ourselves as a law to abstain from 
accomplishing a great good, because it might be attended with 
some evil, we must cease altogether to think of benefiting 
mankind. The general timidity of men preserves them steadily 
enough from risking too much. This is a very powerful agent. 
They seldom attempt the accomplishment of a great good, 
where evils of any magnitude are apparent, except the motive 
be very urgent, and they feel themselves stimulated by the pre* 



Reformation of Luther. 201 

the treaty of Westphalia the Austrian power had 
no other internal principle of weakness than the 
detached situation of the possessions in Swabia, 
Belgium, and Italy, which thence were rendered 
difficult to defend ; an inconvenience severely felt 
in the subsequent wars. The last war between 
that country and France stripped her of these fine 
but burthensome domains. She has obtained 

sence of worse evils than any they have to apprehend. This 
was the case with regard to the Reformation. The oppression 
of the church, and the impending ruin of their liberties by the 
emperor, were greater evils to the German princes and people 
than the conflict they had to sustain in opposing the two 
despots. The inhabitants however of the emperor's own do- 
minions suffered by this effort toward liberty. Occasion was 
taken of it, as always is of every effort toward liberty which is 
not successful, to fasten the chains of a double slavery more 
strongly upon them. At the time of the Reformation his do- 
minions were probably the freest in Europe. The people retained 
in their own hands exclusively the right of taxation, that right 
which became the parent of British liberty; and Charles ob- 
tained no supplies but by the consent of the cortez or states of 
his dominions; which always too supplied him very scantily. 
But great powers were entrusted into his hands for the sup- 
pression of the Reformation. He claimed and solicited them 
for this object, which he represented as most sacred and im- 
portant. The people foolishly consented to them, not reflect- 
ing on the consequences. And by these powers were their 
liberties destroyed. The efforts of the emperor against the 
great revolution were vain • but they were too successful against 
his own people ; and at this moment the states over which he 
ruled groan under the heaviest and most destructive despotism. 



202 Spirit and Influence of the 

others in Germany and Poland much more suitable 
to her real interests. Austria can no longer form 
designs against the liberty of Europe, because 
rivals too powerful' hav,e risen up and confine her 
on all sides; but she will always hold an honour- 
able rank among the principal powers if she 
makes a wise use of the lessons afforded her by 
the Reformation, respecting her want of power 
abroad, and her ample possession of it at home. 

During that civil discord so long and cruel 
among the nations of Germany, the ancient bond 
which existed between them was never broken. 
One part wished the whole to be Catholic, the 
other wished to continue Protestant ; but with 
this exception, all wished to remain united to- 
gether, and to their general head. Had the em- 
pire been divided into two kingdoms, forming two 
weak confederacies, they would have become the 
prey of a powerful neighbour. On the other 
hand experience has shewn that the existence of 
an. evangelical body, and its definitive organi- 
zation, has become an institution salutary to the 
empire in general, and a firm guarantee of its 
constitution, which both parties have an equal in- 
terest ill watching over and maintaining. Even 
now when so many of its members have changed 
their form and name, the life perhaps which pre- 
serves the whole body will only become the more 
active. However this may be, all was disjointed 



Reformation of Luther. 203 

and disordered in that vast country before the Re- 
formation,, all has become order and connection 
since that event, and by its means.* 

Protestant Germany ^ at first stood by its federa- 
tive power, and with considerable equality among 
its principal members. As none of those states, 
except one, ^has since risen to such magnitude as 
to produce a sensible influence upon the political 
situation of the states of Europe, we shall here 
pass them over in silence. That a series of reli- 
gious troubles carried the house of Brunswick 
to the throne of Great Britain, is indeed an inte- 
resting circumstance in several respects; but upon 
the whole it more concerns a particular family than 
a state. The king of England^ being a member 

* That the situation of Germany is more happy in conse- 
quence of that degree of independence preserved to it by the 
efforts of the Protestant, princes, than if it had been universally 
reduced under the dominion of the Austrian emperors, and 
subject to the despotism established in their own states, is not 
doubtful. But that its situation is in any considerable degree 
good is far from being true. The constitution of the empire is 
still a chaos ; and is neither favourable to the happiness of each 
particular state, nor to the strength of the whole. Its situation 
is at this moment one great cause of the insecurity and disorder 
of Europe. A change in that part of J:he world appears una- 
voidable. The fabric of the German empire is completely dis- 
jointed. And a regeneration of the political order cannot in 
that quarter be at any great distance. It might easily be pre- 
vented from coming by a convulsion ; but the means alone ca- 
pable of preventing it will probably not be employed. 



204 Spirit and hiftuence of the 

of the empire, has sometimes been able to move 
that body more easily according to his interests: 
he may have drawn some regiments from Hanover. 
But let any one calculate also what England has 
spent in the defence of that country, and by the 
attachment of the kings of the house of Bruns- 
wick to their German estates; let him consider 
that species of dependence on Prussia and 
France, on which that royal crown has always 
been placed by its amalgamation with the elec- 
toral ; the state of humiliation to which it has 
sometimes been reduced by that circumstance; 
and he will confess that the disadvantages coun- 
terbalance at least the advantages. The real 
power of Great Britain consists in its riches; and 
its riches proceed from its fleets.* We shall see 

* M. Villers does not appear to have studied political eco- 
nomy so well as history, and the balance and oscillations of 
power between states and parties, with the motives and 
causes from which those positions and changes proceed. 
"Wherein does the real power of any countiy consist, but in its 
riches •? For what are riches but the means of maintaining in 
peace and war a great number of men ? and what is the cause 
of power but this ? In what conceivable sense also do the riches 
of Great Britain proceed from its fleets. Does the nation draw 
any money from the royal navy ? Perhaps the expression denotes 
that our riches depend upon our foreign commerce, which is 
sea-born. This is the language of the old, wretched, mercan- 
tile system, so completely exposed by Smith, and exploded by 
all enlightened inquirers into the nature and causes of the wealth 
of nations. There does not proceed from our foreign com- 



Reformation of Luther, 205 

hereafter what influence the Reformation had on 
the first growth of that maritime power. A cir- 
cumstance of greater effect in modifying the ex~ 
istence of Germany was the establishment of the 
Prussian monarchy, the foundations of which 
were laid by the Reformation. At the beginning 
of the sixteenth century Prussia was still an ec- 
clesiastical country, governed by the grand master 
of the Teutonic order. Albert of Brandenburg, 
at that time grand master, followed the example 
set him by more than one ecclesiastical prince. 
He secularised Prussia in ] 525, arid converted it 
into an hereditary dutchy for himself and his de- 
scendants, as vassals of the kings of Poland. He 
married, had children, and the last heiress of that 
branch, named Anne, espoused the hereditary- 
prince, afterwards elector of Brandenburg, under 
the name of John-Si^ismund, Prussia ceased to 
be a fief of Poland in l657> by the treaty of 
Wehlau, and definitively by that of Oliva, three 
<years after. In 3 701 it was erected into a king- 
dom, and has since risen to the rank of the first 
powers in Europe. It is very true that in the se- 
cularization of the dutchy of Prussia it was im- 
possible at the time to suspect the future power of 
the Prussian monarchs; it is however equally true 

mcrce one hundredth part of the national riches which proceed 
from domestic commerce. 



206 Spirit and Influence of the 

that without that event we should at this time 
have reckoned an elector of Brandenburg, but 
not a king of Prussia, among the sovereigns of 
Europe. 

That power has preserved, during its progress, 
the character ascribed above to all the Protestant 
states ; a high degree of public spirit, a fervent 
patriotism, a strong reciprocal attachment between 
the prince and the people, a spirit of liberty and 
genuine republicanism, which extends from the 
throne to the meanest of the people. Add to this 
that a great part of the ancient possessions of the 
clergy is still united to the domains of the crown 
and another employed in institutions useful to the 
country; and you will understand whence arose 
that internal force which Prussia has exhibited on 
several trying occasions, and which so well se- 
conded the genius of her great Frederic during 
the seven years war. It is not doubtful that the 
character of Protestant belonging to that prince 
was greatly favourable to his success. The num-* 
bers of those who secretly followed that faith in 
Silesia, Bohemia, and other Austrian countries, 
was great. When the tolerating banners of 
Prussia were displayed, all sects were necessarily 
more friendly to them than to the Catholic colours 
of persecuting Austria. 

Since Prussia, by a concourse of many other 
causes, foreign to the design of this work, has 



- Reformation of Luther. 207 

attained the rank of a power of the first order, 
her sovereigns have supplied the place of the 
Electors of Saxony in the important station of 
heads of the Protestant party in Germany. They 
are vested in Europe with a double trust, that of 
counterbalancingAustria within the empire, and 
that of contributing powerfully without to the 
maintenance of the balance in the general system 
of Europe.* 

* It is necessary to state here again that the representation 
given of Prussia is by far too favourable. Prussia has undoubt- 
edly risen to a great preponderance over the petty princes of the 
empire, 'and stands therefore at the head of the party which 
opposes the power of Austria. It has thus a confederate im- 
portance in the empire of great magnitude. Its central posi- 
tion too, amid the great powers of Europe, gives it consider- 
able weight in adjusting the general balance. But its intrinsic 
strength, after ' all, is trifling. It has neither frontiers, nor 
center. It has no unity, nor connection. It is made up of a 
number of provinces, scattered at great distances from one an- 
other, differing in laws, customs, habits, temper, and manners, 
nay, in a great measure, even in language. The subjects of 
the king of Prussia have no country, and by consequence no 
patriotism. Industry has hardly made any advances among 
them, and cannot ; because, whatever M. Villers may say, 
they are subject to an odious tyranny. The very manner in 
which they are held in requisition for supplying the army con- 
stitutes actual tyranny, if every thing else were wanting. The 
celebrity of Prussia has been altogether owing to 'the personal 
character of its sovereigns. It wants some important acquisi- 
tions, as those of Hanover and the Netherlands, to make it 
completely a balancing power in Europe. And if at the same 



208 Spirit and Lifluence of the 

Let us further remark that the treaties of Augs- 
burg and Minister, while they consolidated in the 
empire the union of the evangelical states, left 
however a certain priority and preponderance to 
the Catholics as well in the electoral college as in 
the rest of the common affairs. # No Protestant 
head has yet been adorned with the imperial 
crown. Since the interest which religion excited 
has been replaced hy political interest, the evan- 
gelical body might with more propriety be deno- 
minated the Prussian party, and the rest the 
Austrian party; though more than one Catholic 
prince has found it advisable to unite himself with 
Prussia, and some Protestant states to adhere to 
Austria. It is credible that the imperial dignity 
will remain long, and perhaps till its extinction, 
upon the head of a prince of that latter house. 

It is to the period too of the wars of the Re- 
formation, and of the long intervals of peace 
which followed them, that we may refer the origin 
of that custom, among some of the German 
princes, of selling their troops to foreign powers. 
Raised for the present necessity, warlike, accus- 

tirce, with those acquisitions, it were obliged to establish a free 
and excellent government over the whole territory, it might be 
of the utmost benefit in the heart of Europe. 

* Were it only by the clause which enacted that if an eccle- 
siastical prince should change his faith, far from being allowed 
to secularise his dominions, he should forfeit them. Author. 



Reformation of Luther, 20Q 

tomed to the life of a camp, to plunder, and ex- 
cesses, those troops, in time of peace, became 
extremely burthensome to their master and to the 
country. They were very glad to be delivered 
from them by any one who was willing to pay for 
them ; and rendered tbose bargains a source 
of profit. Philip II attacked Holland with 
German soldiers, and Holland defended herself 
with Germans. This custom, it is well known, 
has remained, to the great scandal of human 
nature.* 

DENMARK, 

In the time of the celebrated Margaret, called 
the Semiramis of the north before Catherine the 
second, Denmark was aggrandised with Norway; 
and to her hands^ besides, the states of Sweden 

* This review of the situation of Germany at the time of the 
Reformation is very valuable, more particularly to Britons, 
because Robertson's Charles V is chiefly defective in this 
part. The principal attention in that work seems to have been 
directed to Spanish affairs. He is known to have studied the 
Spanish language for the express purpose. With the German 
language he was unacquainted ; and he seems not to have been 
at all sensible that German affairs were by far the most im- 
portant in that age. It is very observable to an attentive reader 
that there is not the same vigilance of inquiry, the same mi- 
nuteness of information respecting this part of his subject as 
the Spanish, French and Italian ; and his general views, when 
duly weighed, are found to be not far removed, except in lan- 
guage, from the common and superficial, 

P 



a 10 Spirit and Influence of the 

intrusted the sceptre of their country. Her suc- 
cessors endeavoured to raise this election into an 
hereditary title; and hence the violent wars be- 
tween the Danish monarchs and the Swedish aris- 
tocracy; by which the monarchs lost the throne of 
Sweden, but happily lost at the same time the 
temptation of wasting their strength in foreign en- 
terprises. The clergy and great nobility of their 
own states gave them sufficient employment at 
home. They embraced the Reformation along 
with their people in 1527; but it was not com- 
pletely established in that country till twelve 
years after by the sage Christiern III. He was 
obliged to divide the spoils of the clergy with the 
grandees of his kingdom, and was able to retain 
only the smaller part. That portion of the reve- 
nues of the prelates which was destined for the sup- 
ply of their tables was all that was adjudged to the 
crown, and even that was further charged with the 
maintenance of several public institutions. The 
royal dignity, besides, remained elective. The 
warlike reign of the enterprising Christiern 
IV, and still more the ascendant which the 
burghers began to acquire, were necessary to re- 
duce the nobles, and to conduct affairs to the 
situation in which they were found by Frederic 
III in l6(5o, when he was enabled to render 
the crown hereditary, and his power unlimited 
The onlv fundamental law which remained clear 



Reformation of Luther. 2 i 1 

and untouched was that which established Lu- 
theranism as the governing religion of the state.* 
During the thirty years war the king of Denmark 
was for a moment the Agamemnon of the Pro- 
testant army. This was the first effort toward the 
south made by that government in the general 
affairs of Europe. 

SWEDEN. 

The Reformation found in Sweden also an 
elective crown, and a powerful aristo'cracy. But 
Vasa was a conqueror. He had just raised himself 
to the throne by a revolution, and delivered his 
country from the Danish yoke. He was in a con- 
dition, therefore, to draw more advantage from 
the Reformation than had been done by his 
neighbour Christiern. In 1527 he seized upon 
the greater part of the possessions of the clergy^ 
and gave up to the nobles only small portions. 
His wise and vigorous government employed these 
new resources in strengthening the royal authority; 
and he procured a constitutional decree establishing 
the crown hereditary. 

This power, framed by nature more weak than 
any of the great European powers, speedily how 

* M. Spittler, lately Professor of Gottingen, and minister of 
the duke of Wirtembcrg, has written a very good history of 
that revolution, translated into French, under the eye of the 
author, by M. d'Artaud, and which will soon be published. 

Author, 
P2 



212 Spirit and Influence of the 

ever arose by the genius of her kings and tliek 
ministers, as well as by the benefits of the Re- 
formation, to a sort of supremacy in Europe. 
Protestantism was saved by her arms, by which 
the imperial forces were beaten in almost every 
rencounter. She had the honour of presiding at 
Osnaburg in the European congress of West- 
phalia, as France presided in that of Munster. 
The other advantages she derived from her vic- 
tories were trifling. A sum of money was payed 
her to obtain the removal of her troops from 
Germany, where they became as burthensome to 
their friends as they had formerly been to their , 
enemies; and a part of Pomerania only, with some i 
other small districts in the north of the empire, I 
was ceded to her in place of all that she demanded. 
Ey this grant the kings of Sweden became mem* 
bers of the Germanic body, as the king of Den- 
mark is by Holstein, and the king of England by 
Hanover. Since that time Sweden, exhausted 
as she was, has perpetually declined. Twenty 
years after the peace of Westphalia, in l6S8, this 
country, notwithstanding the obligations she cvved 
to France her ally, was, through the interest of 
religion, or perhaps through jealousy, led to com- 
bine against that power with England and Hol- 
land* during the war of Flanders and Franche- 
comte. Christina, whose sole merit as a queen, 
is her having protected learned men, and particu= 



Reformation of Luther. 213 

larly honoured our great Descartes, contributed 
powerfully to the decline of Sweden. A queen, 
weak, and fond of gallantry; a king, despotic, 
and a conqueror, dissipated the advantages procu- 
red to that country by the Reformation. Had 
Gustavus Adolphus and Oxenstiern obtained al- 
ways successors worthy of them, the Czars would 
not probably have built their imperial city on the 
Newa; they would not have reached the shores of 
the Baltic; and the face of the north, and conse- 
quently that of Europe, would have been different 
from what it is. But Sweden shone only for an 
instant ; tfnd like those sudden meteors which 
shoot a momentary light through the long dark- 
ness of the night, it quickly disappeared from the 
political horizon, 

SWITZERLAND. 
Switzerland had her own Reformer in the person 
of Zwinglius, a monk as well as Luther, roused 
like him by the infamy of the indulgence-venders, 
and appearing nearly at the same time. Republi- 
cans and ardent friends of liberty as were the 
Swiss, they should in appearance have flown to 
meet a Reformation. Seven cantons, however, 
remained Catholic; and another thing remarkable 
is, that the cantons which were most decidedly 
republican were of that number. This pheno- 
menon is not easy to explain by those who are not 



'214 Spirit and Influence of the 

well acquainted with the local circumstances. It 
has been already observed that the Catholic reli- 
gion neither is nor can be in all places the same ; 
being modified in different situations by the nature 
and circumstances of each. The Catholicism of 
the little cantons of Schwitz, Uri and Underwald, 
precisely because it was established among those 
mountaineers, naturally republican, had assumed 
a form agreeable to their character, and bent itself 
to their manners. The imagination, besides, of 
the inhabitants of mountains is lively, and re- 
ceives a strong impression from external objects. 
A worship therefore clothed with many forms and 
ceremonies must naturally please them better 
than one more simple and severe. Here had 
lived the founders of Helvetic liberty; and the 
memory of all the events, and of all the great 
characters of that epoch, were intimately associ- 
ated in their faney with the Catholic worship and 
its ceremonies. The fields of famous battles, the 
acts of their ancestors, were on their soil desig- 
nated, not by obelisks, but by chapels. Who has 
travelled in Switzerland, and not been to see the 
chapel of William Tell ? A species of idolatry, a 
national fanaticism, was excited in the little can- 
tons by this mixture of the worship of liberty 
with that of religion, Such even at this day is 
their Catholicism. They do not conceive that 
there is any other. The abuses of the church had 



Reformation of Luther. 215 

scarcely been felt among them.* The Popes 
scarcely exacted any tribute of those poor moun- 
taineers; and their priests, being the only persons 
of any information in their villages and towns, 
acquired, and have still preserved, a great ascen- 
dancy in the deliberations of their assemblies, and 
in all their affairs. Add to this, that knowledge 
had made less progress among them than among 
their rich allies of the plains ; and that having al- 
ready made to these as it were the present of li- 
berty, they were not in a temper to let them pre- 
scribe to them a change in their religion. Other 
local circumstances retained Lucerne, Friburg, 
and Soleure, in the Catholic faith. Bloody con- 
tests, and a religious civil war ensued, which was 
several times suspended, but prolonged by in- 

* Nothing can be more unjust than the accusations that the 
people are fickle and desirous of change in their public institu- 
tions. They are in general wedded to ancient forms far beyond 
reason and expediency ; and till these exhibit themselves by 
effects of immediate and great mischief will neither seek nor 
permit their alteration. This is exemplified by those Swiss 
who, because the Popish superstition, deformed and hostile 
to improvement as it is, had worn its most beneficent appear- 
ance among them, could not consent to its removal. And had 
the unlimited power of the church been exerted with equal 
mildness every where, it is highly probable that we should y^£ 
have all been under the constraint, and involved in the darkness 
of her dominion. It thus appears that the excess of tyranny 
may sometimes become a good ; as it provokes to that resistance 
without which the tyranny could never be broken. 



2lS Spirit and Influence of the 

tervals, even to the 18th century, between the 
members of this modern Achaia. And a remain of 
derision still exists. 

Spain, the Pope, Austria, vigorously supported 
the Catholic party ; France and England sup- 
ported alternately the Protestant cantons; hence 
the sympathies and antipathies of the different 
members of the Helvetic confederacy toward 
those different powers. Even late events have 
exhibited an example both of the animosity of 
the little cantons against the French, the ancient 
protectors of the reformed cantons, and of the 
attachment of the Bernese to the same people. 

Switzerland, occupied and weakened by her 
civil dissensions, has lost since the Reformation 
any influence which previously she possessed in 
the affairs of Europe. But the Protestant cantons 
were in the number of those countries which 
derived most advantage from the revocation of the 
edict of Nantz. The refugees in multitudes re^ 
paired thither with their industry and capital. It 
is well known to what a degree science and good 
morals have flourished in these cantons by reason 
of the durable peace, and that species of inviola- 
bility which this respectable confederacy so long 

enjoyed. 

GENEVA. 

In this faint sketch, in which I have neglected 
io assign particular articles even to considerable 



Reformation of Luther. 217 

states, such, for example, as Bavaria, it will no 
doubt appear surprising that I should stop at a 
single city, containing only a few thousand inha- 
bitants. B Lit this insignificant spot in the phy- 
sical map of Europe is of great importance in the 
moral. There it was that the two Frenchmen, 
Calvin and Theodore Beza, ejected by their own 
country, established a new and powerful focus of 
religious reformation. Its first effect was the 
liberty of Geneva: which banished its Prince- 
bishop, and afterwards governed itself for nearly 
three centuries. It found sufficient resources in 
the energy of its inhabitants, and sufficient power 
in the benefits of the Reformation to support pro- 
tracted wars and to defend itself by force of arms 
against the dukes of Savoy and the kings of Sar- 
dinia, its dangerous neighbours, who long strove 
to subdue it, and' acknowledged its independence 
only about the middle of the last century. The 
influence of this small democratical state, the off- 
spring of the Reformation, and so eminent for 
knowledge, patriotism and activity, on some pow- 
erful states, particularly on France and England, 
is incalculable. Geneva was the cradle of the re- 
ligion professed by Henry IV, and which the 
ambition of the house of Guise, the craft of a 
Medicis, the interest and intrigues of Rome, 
and of Spain, prevented him from carrying to the 
jthrone of France. It was at Geneva, where the 



218 , Spirit and Influence of the - 

exiled, the proscribed Englishmen, chased from 
their island by the intolerance of the first Mary, 
the wife of Philip II, drunk deep of the spirit 
of republicanism and independence. It was 
from this school proceeded those sects of presby- 
terians and independents which agitated Great 
Britain so long, and conducted the unfortunate 
Charles the First to the scaffold. We find in the 
works of Doctor Swift a sermon which he preached 
©n the anniversary of the death of this royal 
martyr, (for so the English afterwards denominated 
him,) in which he explains, with great exactness, 
the whole genealogy. But let us withdraw our 
eyes from this disagreeable scene. What doctrine 
so sacred and true as not to be abused by fanati- 
cism, both religious and political ? Let us rather 
direct them to those multitudes of Protestants of 
all denominations who, under the banners of 
Pen?i, proceeded to lay in the North of America 
the foundations of a free state, already powerful, 
and the high destiny of which cannot as yet be 
ascertained. In fine, from Geneva proceeded a 
great number of men of genius who, as writers, 
or in places of power, have had the greatest 
influence on France, on her moral and political 
condition, on opinions and knowledge. Voltaire 
himself, of whom it was so truly said, that his 
genius was a power in Europe, boasted of having 
gone to support himself by the vicinity of Geneva; 



Reformation of Lather. 1\<$ 

and from that corner of the world it was, that like 
a new Calvin, he extended his influence in all di- 
rections. Geneva, besides the great men whom 
she formed, has always been visited by the nume- 
rous travellers from all countries who went to see 
Italy and Switzerland. She always communicated 
less or more of her own spirit to those who were 
constituted to receive it; and from all these con- 
siderations it may be truly affirmed that this little 
republic had as great an influence on the destiny 
and improvement of Europe as several mighty 
monarchies. 

This is a new proof of the immense advantage 
to human nature of little states, and of the em- 
ployment which is made by their means of the 
concentrated power of each district of the globe. 
This proof is repeated at every step in Germany ; 
where we meet with free cities and principalities 
of moderate extent, all of which have their prin- 
ciple of life, active, peculiar and independent* 
Ea6h prides itself on making industry, the sciences 
and arts, flourish in its little capital. Universities 
and schools are multiplied; and knowledge be- 
comes more general in the nation. If truth is 
persecuted by fanaticism in one quarter, it has 
only to make a step, and it finds a secure asylum 
on passing the next frontier. In fine, each state in 
this confederate system regards itself as something 
in itself; and by that single circumstance becomes 



220 Spirit and Influence of the 

something. Every city, of moderate size, is not 
struck with a palsy by the idea that it is nothing, 
that at one or two hundred leagues distance is -an- 
other greater city which is every thing, a gulph in 
which its labours are swallowed up, a place where 
the whole glory of the empire is concentrated in 
one luminous point, away from which there is no 
safety, nothing but Helotism, political, moral, 
and literary, throughout an immense country. 
Had Athens, had Delphi, Corinth, Lacedemon, 
IVIytilene, Smyrna, not enjoyed this individuality, 
and had one sovereign city monopolised the whole 
splendour of Greece, would so many great men, 
and great virtues, have every where appeared? 
Had not the arts and muses of Italy every where 
beheld courts and flourishing republics in their 
neighbourhood which smiled upon them; had ge- 
nius not been awakened by immediate celebrity 
and encouragements at Ferrara, Mantua, Venice, 
Florence, Guastalla, and Sienna, as at Rome and 
Naples ; had there not been in all Italy but one 
center, one point, one city, would that country 
have become in the arts the most classical of 
modern times ? # 

* Some advantages are enjoyed by small states undoubtedly. 
But the question of the superiority of them or great states is 
not so certainly decided as it appears to be to M. Villers. The 
insecurity under which they are placed, unless all great states 
could be removed, is an unfavourable circumstance which 



Reformation of Luther. , 221 

HOLLAND. 
Another offspring of the Reformation, of more 
immediate importance in the affairs of Europe, , 
was the republic of the United Provinces. This 
new state formed a part of the possessions of the 
house of Austria, and had remained in the 
hands of the Spanish branch, that is to say, in 
those of Philip II, after the death of Charles 
V. Here reigned the same serious turn of 
mind, the same free and upright spirit, as in 
Lower Saxony. The manners were the same; 
the language was almost the same; and the origin 
the same. The Low Countries, before their in- 
dependence, formed a part of the empire, and of 
the circle of Burgundy. In these the Reformation 
had made rapid progress. Its mortal enemy, 
Philip II, wished to extinguish it on a soil 
over which he reigned; and he opposed, head- 
long, force to opinion. But opinion is a smooth 

©verbalances all the good things which otherwise they bring. 
Very great empires are certainly not friendly to human nature. 
For the government of them such mighty powers are necessary 
that they must always be despotical; and before the master of 
one of them a private individual is as nothing. In moderate 
states, probably, the happiest combination of circumstances for 
the human species is found; states in which the public security 
is sufficiently guaranteed by the public strength, though such a 
degree of power is not necessarily entrusted to the chief magis- 
trate as to set him above the power and controul of the people. 



222 Spirit and Influence of the 

file which grinds the iron that is rubbed upon it 
The inquisition, designed to preserve Holland to 
the king of Spain and to the Catholic faith, was 
only productive of a more speedy revolt against 
both. After fifteen years of vexation, of resist- 
ance, and of punishment, the exasperated Bata- 
vians declared themselves emancipated from the 
yoke of Philip. 

The idea of forming a republic altogether inde- 
pendent appears not at first to have presented itself 
to their minds; they only desired to save their 
privileges and charters. The confederated pro^ 
vinces offered to several neighbouring princes the 
patronage of their country under the provision of 
their ancient capitulations. The duke of Alenqon, 
brother of Henry III, quitted that office on 
account of incapacity and misconduct. Queen 
Elizabeth refused it, from a policy which looked 
farther than to the apparent advantage of the day. 
At last, not knowing to whom they should offer 
themselves, the Batavians conceived the design of 
remaining their own masters. Each province 
formed itself into a republic; and entered into the 
bonds of a confederacy with the rest. The system 
produced by this means was complicated and auk- 
ward. But the spirit was good; and had its good 
effects in spite of the defective machine in which 
it was contained. Great men, animated with this 
spirit, carried the republic to that height of gran- 



Reformation of Luther. 223 

deur and prosperity at which we know that it ar- 
rived. Having to contend with Spain, at that 
time the first maritime power in the world, and to 
oppose its fleets with which it came to the contest, 
it behoved the new state also to become maritime 
to be able to cope with its enemy, and to find re- 
sources in commerce. The Dutch fleets attained 
quickly the rank of the first in Europe. The genius 
of patriotism and of liberty performed on the ocean 
the same miracles as on the soil of Belgium. It 
is thus to the Reformation that Holland owes in- 
termediately that source of its power and prospe- 
rity. Let us return to what happened within the 
republic. 

Religious enthusiasm had been the principle of 
the revolution. What wonder, if under a new 
and free government it continued to operate, pro- 
duced powerful effects upon the body of the state, 
and gave birth to a multitude of fanatical and 
formidable sects f The difference was great here 
and in the states of Germany, for example, 
where the prince as well as the people became 
Protestant, and along with the new 7 religion main- 
tained almost entire the ancient police. Here 
every one thought himself at liberty to behave as 
he pleased; and the theologians acted parts of 
very great importance. This is the reason why in 
no country the bigotry of Protestantism was 
carried to such excess as in Holland: and whv re- 



224 Spirit and Influence of the 

ligious controversies always there produced poli- 
tical storms and revolutions m the government. 
Of this the history of the republic presents abun- 
dance of examples. It is well known what ad- 
vantage the Stadtholders derived from the dissen- 
sions between the sects of Armenians and Goma- 
rists to advance their authority, and to reduce 
that of the states. The rage of Maurice, Prince 
of Orange, even led him to take advantage of his 
triumph so far as to make fall upon -a scaffold the 
head of the venerable Barneveld, that aged pa- 
triot, who had rendered the most eminent services 
to his country, and who supported the cause of 
the states. These troubles form, as it were, the 
ground work of the whole internal history of the 
republic from the time that its existence was se- 
cured. Religious opinions were their original 
cause; though it is true that, afterwards, those 
troubles were fomented both by the vices of the 
constitution itself, and by external causes, the 
explication of which does not belong to our 
subject. 

ENGLAND. 

Among the passions of Henry VIII, king of 
England, ought to be reckoned his admiration 
of St. Thomas Aquinas. His veneration for this 
vigorous champion of orthodoxy ran so high, that 
when Luther sharply contradicted St. Thomas 
Henry thought himself obliged to enter the lists, 



Refdrmalion of Luther. 225 

and to defend his master. He wrote accordingly 
a treatise, or a Vindication of the Seven Sacraments, 
against Luther, who contended that there were 
only two. Luther took up his new adversary on a 
footing of perfect equality, and laughed at him, 
The royal doctor conceived the most violent 
hatred against his opponent. The Pope, who de- 
spised the book as much perhaps as Luther, com- 
forted the author to the utmost of his power, by 
giving him the title of Defender of the Faith. 
Six years had not elapsed, when Henry, unfaithful 
to the Pope, separated himself and his kingdom 
from the Holy See; retaining however the title of 
Defender of the Faith, which his successors still 
preserve. This first operation was the beginning 
of a series of revolutions, and miseries, which 
have scarcely ceased, even in our days, to ravage 
the three kingdoms; for the late disorders in 
Ireland are a consequence of the same event. In 
no country did the Reformation produce effects so 
strange and contradictory. The detached situation 
of Great-Britain contributed to this as much as 
the gloomy and inflexible character of its inhabi- 
tants. The neighbouring nations cannot bring 
effectual assistance to any party, and the activity 
of the people cannot be carried and wasted abroad. 
When a fire breaks out in an edifice, so inacces- 
sible, it must needs be consumed, and the com- 
bustion is only extinguished when it has nothing 

Q 



226 Spirit and Influence of the 

more to support it. Other causes contributed to 
those contests so long and violent in the English 
church; and it is necessary to pay them some at- 
tention. 

In the first place Henry the Eighth did not in- 
tend to become Protestant ; he only wanted tc 
marry the beautiful Anne Boleyn. But as, for 
this purpose, it was necessary to obtain a divorce 
from his first wife, the sister of Charles the Fifth, 
the pope, who, in other circumstances, would no 
doubt have been more complaisant, decided be- 
tween the two princes, in favour of him who ap- 
peared the most to be dreaded, and refused his 
consent to the divorce. Henry enraged against a 
pope who dared to oppose him in his amours, de- 
clares himself head of the English church, and 
forbids all communication with Rome, by which 
in return he is excommunicated. But he hated 
Luther at least as much as the pope; and under 
his reign it was no less dangerous to pass for a 
Protestant than a Catholic. He gave to the church 
an episcopal constitution, in which, with the ex- 
ception of the monks, whose wealth he had seiz- 
ed, the ancient hierarchical edifice, was found al- 
most entire and in which he himself played, very 
literally, and very despotically, the part of the 
. sovereign pontiff. This was doing too much, or 
too little. The sera of an universal crisis admits 
adi oi half measures, The Reformation in Ger= 



Reformation of Luther. 22-7 

many had found a great number of partisans in 
England, and the minds of many were devoted 
to it. The greater number were dissatisfied at 
finding their expectation frustrated, and placed 
but little distinction between Catholics, and Epis 
copalians. The signal of rebellion against Rome 
was given : It was easy to see that people would 
not willingly stop mid- way. This was the first 
cause of trouble. The decided Protestants as 
well as the Catholics, became sworn enemies of 
the Episcopalians, and of the government which 
supported them. 

In the next place, far from a steady adherence 
to this half Reformation of Henry VIII, the 
people under the subsequent reigns beheld nothing 
but retractations, and sudden and violent changes 
from Protestantism to Popery, and from Popery 
to Episcopacy. After Edward the Sixth, whose 
reign was too short, had made a step of approxi- 
mation toward the Reformation, came the reigr^ 
of the Catholic and bigotted Mary, the daughter 
of that princess whom Henry had divorced, edu- 
cated under her mother in Spain, in abhorrence 
of Protestantism and Episcopacy. When scarcely- 
seated on the throne she married her kinsman, 
the sanguinary Philip, afterwards king of Spain, 
Every thing which had been done by Henry VIII 
and Edward VI was overturned. Protestants and 
Episcopalians were all deposed, disqualified, per 

a 2 



228 Spirit and Influence of the 

secuted, and massacred inhumanly. Four bishops, 
among whom was the virtuous patriot Cranmer, 
archbishop of Canterbury, were burned alive. 
All offices of state were given to the most intole- 
rant Catholics. The animosity of the different 
parties ran to the greatest height. Five years of 
power, from 1553 to 1558, were sufficient for 
Mary and her popish theologians to disseminate 
over unhappy England the venom of civil wars, 
and of implacable dissentions. Persecuted by her, 
the Protestants fled in multitudes towards Ger- 
many, Switzerland, and especially Geneva, whence 
they brought back the republican ideas of the 
Anabaptists and Calvinists, which, mixed with the 
bitter feelings of banishment, produced an ex- 
plosion so injurious to their country. 

Had Henry the Eighth prudently embraced the 
Reformation of Luther, and his successors steadily 
adhered to it, the island would probably have re- 
mained as calm as Denmark and Sweden. Eliza- 
beth succeeded Mary, and re-established the Re- 
formation, while she preserved Episcopacy. The 
new ecclesiastical system was modelled at London, 
by a national council, in 1563, and called the act 
of uniformity. It was intended by this act to 
form an union between the different parties. It 
was too late. The people's hearts were too much 
ulcerated ; and their heads were become too ec- 
centric. The separation of the non-conformists, 



Reformation of Luther. 12Q 

the Puritans and Presbyterians, from the episcopal 
church became hence the more decided and per- 
fect. To complete the confusion, the Irish re- 
mained Catholic. There Philip of Spain, who 
hated Elizabeth because she had refused his hand, 
and supported his rebellious subjects in the low 
countries, employed his intrigues, scattered his 
gold, and excited rebellion. The same was done 
by Rome, France, and Mary queen of Scotland, 
who perished afterwards under the axe of the exe- 
cutioner in the irons of her rival. 

The long and inveterate war then furiously 
lighted up between England and Spain rendered 
the first of those powers ambitious to tear from 
her adversary all her advantages, and to rival her 
in every respect. From the epoch of this hostile 
emulation the navy of England is dated. Spain, 
since the discovery of America, reigned on the 
seas, which she covered with her vessels. Eliza- 
beth constructed fleets, formed sailors, arid placed 
herself in a condition to make head against Philip 
the Second on that element. This prince, who 
thought himself king of England, because the 
pope had given it him, and because Elizabeth, 
being an heretic and excommunicated, could not 
lawfully possess the crown, prepared, for the con- 
quest of his kingdom, a fleet, to which the nick- 
name of invincible has remained attached, and 
which was all destroyed by the English and by the 



230 Spirit and Influence of the 

winds. By an event thus glorious did the English 
navy commence; and it is with justice that the 
origin of this as well as of the Dutch naval power 
is attributed to the effects produced by the Re- 
formation, inasmuch as the spoils of the clergy 
supported both governments in that expensive 
undertaking. 

To the immortal Elizabeth succeeded James the 
First, king of Scotland, hostile to the Presby- 
terians who predominated in his dominions, and 
whom he raised against himself by his attempts to 
place them on the footing of the episcopal church. 
His reign is nothing but a tissue of false measures 
which displeased all parties. He married his son 
to a Catholic princess of the house of France, 
after having offended the nation by a project of 
marriage between the same son and a Spanish 
princess. His errors paved the way for all the 
miseries of the reign of Charles the First. When 
this prince came to the throne all the disposable 
part of the wealth of the clergy had been wasted 
under the preceding reigns, and upon favourites 
and enemies of the throne; had been employed 
in seducing or controuling the minds of men, or 
in supporting the new navy, and the wars with 
Spain. The unfortunate Charles found himself 
without resources, and constrained perpetually to 
solicit supplies from the house of commons, 
which, having become almost entirely Presby- 



Reformation of Luther. 231 

terian, refused them with insolence, or prescribed 
to him intolerable conditions in order to obtain 
them; hence the necessity under which he felt 
himself of employing illegal methods of all sorts 
to procure money* Favourable, like his father^ 
to the Catholics, and by consequence more partia 
to the Episcopalians than the Presbyterians, he 
endeavoured to accomplish, in Scotland, the work 
of James the First, by establishing in it episco- 
pacy. By this proceeding he drove the inhabi- 
tants of that kingdom into open rebellion, and 
made war upon his Scottish subjects with an army 
of English almost equally disaffected to him; 
leaving behind him at London a parliament not 
much less the object of his fear than the Scottish 
convention. From this fermentation, political 
and religious, arose a powerful sect of Indepen- 
dents who obtained the ascendancy in the house 
of commons, drove the lords from the upper 
house, and began by obliging the unfortunate 
Charles, already at bay, to deliver up to the exe- 
cutioner his faithful minister Strafford. The new 
parliament declares itself independent of the royal 
prorogation; deposes and persecutes the Episco- 
palians; distributes offices civil, military, and ec- 
clesiastical to the greatest zealots, men without 
constraint and without modesty, and often from 
the lowest order of the people; privately, at the 
same' time, excites the rebels in Ireland, refuses 



232 Spirit and Influence of the 

the king all the means of reducing them; and 
when Charles at last, to the consumption of all 
his remaining resources, collected an army to at- 
tack them, the Independents had the art to turn 
that very army against the unhappy monarch.*" 

* In this account of the struggles between the king and 
parliament in England in the reigns of James, and Charles 
the First, a passage of so much importance in the history of 
British freedom, Villers has allowed himself to be entirely 
misled by Hume. To correct this erroneous statement we 
may introduce a few passages from an author who has with so 
much knowledge and sagacity illustrated the English history, 
Mr. Millar, in his " Historical View of the English Govern- 
ment." 

" During the whole reign of James," says Millar, " the 
behaviour of the commons was calm, steady, and judicious, 
and does great honour to the integrity and abilities of those emi- 
nent patriots, by whom the determinations of that assembly 
were chiefly directed. Their apprehensions concerning the pre- 
valence of popery were perhaps greater than there was any 
good reason to entertain -, but this proceeded from the prejudice 
of the times ; and to judge fairly of the spirit with which, in 
this particular, the members of parliament were animated, we 
must make allowance for the age and country in which they 
lived, and for the occurrences which were still fresh in their 
memory. Though placed in circumstances that were new and 
critical, though heated by a contest in which their dearest 
rights were at stake, and doubtless alarmed by the danger to 
which, from their perseverance in their duty, they were ex- 
posed j they seem to have kept at an equal distance from in- 
vading the prerogatives of the crown, and betraying the liber- 
ties of the people. They defended the ancient government 
with vigour j put they acted merely upon the defensive 5 and it 



Reformation of Luther. 233 

Abandoned by it he throws himself into the arms 
of the Scots, by whom he is given up to the 

will be difficult to shew that they advanced any one claim which 
was either illegal or unreasonable. The conduct of James, on 
the other hand, was an uniform system of tyranny, prosecuted 
according to the scale of his talents. In particular his levying 
money without consent of parliament, his dispensing with the 
laws against popish recusants, and his imprisoning and punish- 
ing the members of parliament for declaring their opinions in 
the house, were manifest and atrocious violations of the consti- 
tution. 

i( The first fifteen years of the reign of Charles, presented 
nearly the same view of political parties, which had occurred 
in the reign of his father; the king eagerly demanding supplies; 
threatening that unless his demands are complied with, he must 
have recourse to other methods of procuring money ; and de- 
claring that, as the existence of parliaments depends entirely 
upon his will, they must expect, according to their behaviour, 
either to be continued or laid aside; — Parliament, on the other 
hand, with inflexible resolution, insisting upon the previous re- 
dress of grievances j its members imprisoned, and called to ac- 
count for their behaviour in that assembly; repeated dissolu- 
tions of parliament for its perseverance in refusing to grant the 
sums demanded ; and each dissolution followed by the arbitrary 
exaction cf loans and benevolences, and by such other expedi- 
ents as the crown could put in practice for procuring money. 

" From the whole behaviour of the king during this period," 
says Millar, (< from numberless instances in which he declared 
his political sentiments ; from the countenance and favour 
which he shewed to the authors of doctrines entirely subversive 
of civil liberty ; from his peremptory demands of supply, ac- 
companied with menaces, in case they should not be complied 
with; from his repeated dissolutions of parliament, for persist- 



234 Spirit and Influence of the 

English. The feeble party of the rovalists keep 
the field in vain. Cromwell subdues them, reign? 

ing to inquire into national grievances -, and from his continuing, 
in consequence of an avowed resolution, for so long a period 
as that of eleven years, to rule without the aid of any national 
council, and to levy money, both directly and indirectly, by 
his own authority 5 from all these circumstances it is manifest, 
that he considered himself as an absolute monarch, and that, 
although he made repeated applications to parliament for sup- 
plies, he was far from admitting the necessity of such an expe- 
dient, but claimed the power of imposing taxes as an inherent 
right of the crown, 

ft It appears at the same time indisputable, that such doc- 
trines and claims were inconsistent with the original constitution, 
and fundamental laws of the kingdom. By the uniform series 
of statutes, from the reign of William the Conqueror, and ac- 
cording to the principles and maxims recognised and admitted 
in all public transactions, the legislative power, and that of im- 
posing taxes, were exclusively vested in parliament. These 
laws, indeed, had been sometimes violated by particular 
princes, who had not always been called to account for such 
violations. Bat these illegal measures of the crown were nei- 
ther so numerous, so uniform, nor so long continued, as to 
make the nation forget that they were usurpations, or lose sight 
of those important privileges which had been thus invaded. 
The king was no more understood to have acquired a right to 
such powers, from his having occasionally exercised them, than 
ndividuals become entitled to commit rapine or theft, merely 
because they have sometimes been guilty of those crimes, and 
have had the good fortune to escape with impunity. 

ft In the history of the world," continues he, " we shall 
perhaps discover few instances of pure and genuine patriotism, 
equal to that which during the reign of James, and during "the 



Reformation of Luther. 235 

more despotically than any monarch would have 
dared to do ; and as the parliament, which he had 

first fifteen years of the reign of Charles, was displayed by 
those leading members of parliament, who persevered, with no 
less temper than steadiness in opposing the violent measures of 
the court. The higher exertions of public spirit are often so 
contrary to common- feelings, and to the ordinary measures of 
conduct in private life, that we are, in many cases, at a loss 
whether to condemn or admire them. It may also be remarked, 
that in the most brilliant examples of heroism, the splendour 
of the atchievement, at the same time that it dazzles the be- 
holder, elevates and supports the mind of the actor, and ena- 
bles him to despise the difficulties and dangers with which he 
is surrounded. When Brutus took away the life of Caesar, he 
ran counter to those ordinary rules which bind society together - t 
but according to the notions of his own age, he secured the 
applause and veneration of the worthier part of his countrymen. 
To perform a great service to our country by means that are al- 
together unexceptionable, merits a purer approbation j and if 
the action, while it is equally pregnant with danger, procures 
less admiration and renown, it affords a more unequivocal and 
convincing proof of true magnanimity and virtue. When 
Hampden, by an appeal to the laws of his country, exposed 
himself to the fury of Charles and his ministry, he violated no 
friendship, he transgressed no duty public or private ; and while 
he stood forth to defend the cause of liberty, he must have been 
sensible that his efforts, if ineffectual, would soon be neglected 
and forgotten 5 and that, even if successful, they were less 
calculated to procure the applause of his cotemporaries, than 
to excite the admiration and esteem of a grateful posterity. 

" To the illustrious patriots who remained unshaken during 
this period, we are indebted in a good measure, for the pre- 
servation of that freedom which was banished from most of the 



236 Spirit and Influence of the 

already mutilated, did not conduct itself to his 
humour, he dissolved and dismissed it. The head 

ether countries of Europe, They set the example of a consti- 
tutional resistance to the encroachments of prerogative j accom- 
modated their mode of defence to the variations in the state of 
society which the times had produced ; and taught the house of 
commons, by a judicious use of their exclusive right of taxation, 
to maintain and secure the rights of their constituents." 

Of the long parliament too, Millar speaks in the following 
terms: 

" Whoever," says he, fc examines with attention the pro- 
ceedings of this parliament, from their first meeting to the com- 
mencement of the civil war, will easily perceive, that their 
views were somewhat different from those of the four preceding 
parliaments ; and perhaps will find reason to conclude, that they 
did not continue through the whole of this period invariably the 
same. It was the object of this parliament to reform such parts 
of the constitution as were grossly defective 5 but their plan of 
Reformation was necessarily varied, and extended according to 
the pressure of circumstances. 

" That the parliament had at this time any intention to over- 
turn the monarchy, and to establish a republican form of govern- 
ment, there is no good reason to suppose. After all the regu- 
lations which this parliament introduced, the sovereign still re- 
mained in the possession of very ample powers. He still would 
have enjoyed a voice in the legislature. He would still have 
exercised the power of collecting and disposing of the public 
revenue at his discretion. He would still have remained the 
fountain of honour, would have nominated all the judges during 
pleasure j and have had the sole privilege of declaring peace and 
war, with that of levying and commanding all the mercenary 
forces of the kingdom, In a word his direct authority would 



Reformation of Luther. 237 

of the king falls- upon a scaffold. The implacable 
and inveterate resentments which this struggle 
created were restrained by the soldiers of the 
Protector while he lived, bat broke out with vio- 
lence under the anarchy which succeeded his- 
reign. The most extravagant opinions in politics 

have been more absolute than that of the British monarch at 
present. 

t( With respect to the conduct of Charles during this period, 
we meet with no important variation : The same arbitrary system 
invariably pursiied, and by the same unscrupulous means of 
dissimulation and duplicity. To those indeed who look no fur- 
ther than the immediate transactions, and who are unable to, 
trace the intentions and motives of the parties, it may seem 
that the ground of the dispute had been changed, while parlia- 
ment was labouring to introduce a set of palpable innovations 3 
and the king, who certainly consented to these with reluctance, 
is represented to us in the light of a secret friend to the old 
constitution. This is the aspect of the controversy, which 
those authors who attempt to excuse or justify the monarch, 
are at great pains to exhibit, and to which they would willingly 
confine the attention of the reader. They endeavour to con- 
ceal, or keep out of view the former measures of the sovereign, 
by which he had subverted the fundamental laws of the king- 
dom, and the evidence which had occurred of his obstinate re- 
solution to persist in the same designs. Thus they impute to 
parliament, the offences in reality committed by the king; and 
represent as violations of the constitution, the regulations which 
had become absolutely necessary for its preservation; that is, 
they consider as a poison, the antidote given to prevent its bane- 
ful effects,' ' 

Millar's View, &c. V. III. c. 4, 



'23 S Spitit and Influence of the 

were blended with the most extravagant in reli- 
gion. Massacre, revenge, civil war. desolated the 
face of three kingdoms. As a necessary conse- 
quence of the abuse of all religious opinions, of 
the excess to which they had been carried, they 
fell into universal discredit. They were replaced 
by atheism, libertinism, and the contempt of ail 
laws divine and human. In this state of things 
Charles II mounts the throne, favours Catho- 
licism in secret, Episcopacy ostensibly, marries a 
Catholic princess who draws a multitude of fo- 
reigners of that profession into the kingdom, and 
makes war upon Protestant Holland, the ancient 
ally of England* 

Upon each of those changes so sudden and fre- 
quent, changes which were the principal cause of 
all the miseries of England, the adherents of the 
oppressed party took refuge in multitudes beyond 
the seas; the Protestants, as has been aiready 
said, in Germany, Holland, Switzerland and 
America ; the Catholics in France and Italy. 
where their fanaticism acquired new strength, and 
where they were followed by the Episcopalians, 
who in that situation generally became Catholics. 
There in fact it was that James II became so; 
who succeeded Charles. His impolitic efforts to 
re-establish popery in England served only to 
carrv the animosity and confusion to a height. 
He lost therein his crown, and died in exile, His 



Reformation of Luther, 239 

sister Mary, a sincere Protestant, and her husband 
William of Orange, were by the nation called to 
fill the throne. His wisdom contributed to calm 
the lengthened storm. The waves yet continued 
long to murmur ; but a solemn act of succession 
having excluded the Catholic princes from the 
throne, the Protestant house of Hanover received 
the sceptre of England, and by its mild and 
equable sway is extinguishing by degrees the ani- 
mosity of the ancient parties. 

Now that this terrible crisis is passed over, what 
.thence has remained to the nation ? That energy 
which rises from long civil commotions, that 
gloom which rises from the recollection of them, 
an ardent love of the liberty for which so many 
contests were endured, a tendency to meditation, 
which brings along with it lofty sentiments of re- 
ligion, and that spirit of toleration toward all 
opinions, which so naturally succeeds the delirium 
of fanaticism. 

One great error of the English monarchs has 
been to suppose that the episcopal system was a 
prop of the throne ; a feeble support which in its 
fall so easily carried along with it that very throne 
which it was expected to uphold, and the downfal 
of which it could in no case have retarded. In 
the times of darkness which preceded Luther, 
the support of the clergy was of importance to 
princes. But since that Reformer hss appeared. 



240 Spirit and hifiuence of the 

the church, protected in its external polity by the 
civil power, ought to limit the range of its activity 

to the cultivation simply of good morals in the 
state by the influence of religion. 

The Reformation, which to other countries has 
been the source of so many blessings, has been to 
unhappy Ireland a most disastrous scourge. 
Treated as a conquered people, and long at the 
discretion of England, the Irish obstinately re- 
mained Catholics precisely because their oppressors 
were Protestants. Their chains were on that ac- 
count rendered the heavier. Their island was 
filled with rapacious Englishmen, by whom nearly 
all property was grasped. The despair of these 
exasperated men at last broke out with fury ia 
164 J. A massacre throughout the island ensued 
of more than a hundred thousand Protestants, 
Cromwell afterwards took vengeance on them, 
and delivered up almost the whole island to his 
soldiers. William III established there a legal 
and constitutional tyranny. The Catholics were 
deprived of political existence, of property, and 
even of education. It pleased England to make 
of them a horde of gross and barbarous mendi- 
cants. It is like barbarians accordingly that they 
have taken vengeance on every occasion which 
has presented itself. Animosities of this' nature 
remain and are transmitted through many gene- 
rations. During the last war the Irish have suffi- 



Reformation of Luther. 241 

dently shewn that several reigns of toleration have 
not entirely obliterated their deep resentments.* 

* This opinion of an enlightened foreigner respecting the po« 
licy and consequences of that treatment which Ireland has re- 
ceived from this country ought to excite particular attentions 
It is not the universal opinion of impartial foreigners only, but 
of almost every well-informed and candid person in Great- 
Britain itself. We meet with a very striking passage in a work 
lately published by an Irish gentleman, a Protestant, a member 
of the last Irish parliament, a man of steady loyalty, of pro- 
perty, and of great moderation, respecting the code of laws 
established at the revolution, to which our author here alludes. 

" During about three- fourths of the last century, the Roman 
Catholics, constituting the great majority of the Irish people, 
were exposed to all the various mischiefs of a rigorous vindictive 
government, generally much more prone to abet, or at least to 
tolerate or connive at, than prompt to restrain the diversified 
outrages and vexations of subordinate tyrants : a government 
acting almost uniformly towards the great body of its subjects on 
the destructive and dangerous principles of irritation, instead of 
tne salutary principles of conciliation. The penal laws which 
affected the Roman Catholics of Ireland formed as oppressive 
and as impolitic a code as ever continued twenty years unabro- 
gated in the most miserable nation that ever had existence s , 
Xl a code" to use the words of the late Earl of Clare, " highly 
injurious to the landed interest of Ireland; and inevitably dimi- 
nishing the value of every mans estate who voted for it."* A 
code whereof several of the sad effects are not as yet so entirely 
obliterated as to escape the observation of the attentive and dis- 
passionate moralist or politician; but one which a spirit of pa-. 
triotism now urges the descendants of the sufferers to forgive 

* Speech in the House of Lords, 13th March 179.3, 

K 



'242 Spirit and Influence of the 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
The very mention of this new state, entirely 
European, on the soil of America, may call to 
mind that it was created by the partisans of the 
reformation and liberty, flying before the oppres- 
sion and intolerance of parties. If the English 
emigrants, who went to seek an asylum on the 
continent of Europe during the disturbances 
which we have related, carried back with them into 
their country the seeds of hatred and discord, 
those who took refuge in the wilds of Pennsyl- 
vania obtained for themselves peace and tolera- 

and forget, while reflection teaches those of the punishers to 
lament." Newenham's Inquiry into the Progress, &c. of the 
Population of Ireland. 

The same code Mr. Burke stigmatizes in the following ener- 
getic and indignant terms. 

" All the penal laws," says he, u of that luiparalleled code 
of oppression were manifestly the effects of national hatred and 
scorn towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted 
to trample upon, and were not at all afraid to provoke." Letter 
to Sir H. Langrishe. In the same letter he says afterwards, 
tf you hated it (the penal code against the Catholics) as I did, 
for its vicious perfection. For I must do it justice. It was a 
complete system, full of coherence and consistency; well di- 
gested and well composed in all its parts. It was a machine of 
wise and elaborate contrivance ; and as well fitted for the op- 
pression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people, and 
the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever pro- 
ceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man." 



Reformation of Luther, 243 

tion. They founded there Philadelphia, the city\ 
of brothers, the finest name undoubtedly ever 
given to an abode of men. Escaped from the 
storms on that distant coast, recalled to nature and 
the primitive destination of the human race, those 
planters, who carried knowledge and civilization 
along with them, had leisure to reflect on the 
origin and laws of civil society, and on the respec* 
tive duties of governments and people. Having, 
moreover, to organize a political body entirely 
new, they were led by necessity to study with/ 
primary care the elements of legislation. We 
have accordingly derived from them fine precepts 
and still finer examples. It is well known that 
after having remained for a time under the laws of 
the mother country, this association of free and 
energetic men of almost all nations resolved at 
last to resume the right of governing themselves. 
In this enterprize they were seconded by Louis 
XVI, who sent an army to their assistance. The 
Frenchmen who composed it arrived as friends 
among those republicans, were admitted into inti- 
macy with them, and saw, for the first time, a 
spectacle very surprising to them, simplicity of 
m?nners, and evangelical peace among men who 
had taken up arms in defence of their rights. 
Reflection was generated among them. They 
compared the principles and the government of 
their own country with what they observed among 

R2 



244 Spirit and Influence of the 

the descendants of Penn; and it is well known hi 
what manner those Frenchmen, whom a king had 
thus made the soldiers of liberty, exhibited them- 
selves such in reality during the first years of the 
revolution. Among the vast number of remote 
and immediate causes which contributed to this 
great event must not be forgotten the American 
republic, and the Reformation of which it w T as a 
direct consequence. 

This state, hitherto not powerful, and placed 
at a distance from Europe, has not yet been di- 
rectly of great influence in the political system. 
But who can calculate the influence which it may 
one day acquire in the colonial and commercial 
systems, of so much importance to Europe? 
Who can tell what may happen to both worlds 
from the seducing example of that independence 
which the Americans obtained by conquest? What 
new position would the world acquire, if that ex- 
ample were followed? And without doubt, in the 
end, it will be so. Thus will two Saxon monks 
have changed the face of the globe. The domi- 
nican Tetzel impudently comes to preach indul- 
gences at the gates of Wittemberg; the indigna- 
tion of the honest and vehement Luther is raised ; 
he attacks indulgences; all Europe is roused; it is 
thrown into fermentation ; and an explosion takes 
place. A new order of things arises. New com- 
monwealths are founded. Their principles, still 



Reformation of Luther. 245 

more powerful than their arms, are introduced 
into every country. Hence great revolutions are 
produced ; and those which will hence be produced 
hereafter are certainly incalculable*. 

II. States of ivhich the governments have not 
embraced the Reformation, 

SPAIN. 
This country, governed by one of the branches 
of the house of Austria, acted a principal part 
among the powers which opposed the Reforma- 
tion. The contest into which her kings entered 
for the destruction, first of Holland, then of 
England, and afterwards of both together, was 
fatal to her. Not only was she by this means ex- 
hausted both of men and money; but those rival 
nations, obliged to protect themselves with arms 
similar to those employed by their enemy, created 
navies which in a short time crushed those of 
Spain. From that time many of the sources of 
her prosperity were dried up. A rivalship of 
this kind, once established between Spain and 
England, necessarily drove Portugal, in the sequel, 
into the arms of the latter power. The patronage 
which England by that means acquired yet 
remains, and affords her great commercial 
advantages. * 

* It is curious how prone all foreigners, more especially 
Frenchmen, are to form erroneous opinions of the sources ot 



246 Spirit and Influence of the 

In the mean time the violent straggle which 
Spain supported abroad could not be maintained 
but by violent exactions and vigorous measures 
•employed at home. The people exasperated, and 
worn out with oppression, prepared to repel it. 
However ignorant the Spaniards might be, yet 
the two examples, of the Bohemians who had re- 
covered their religious liberty, and of the Dutch 
who had recovered their political liberty from the 
despotic house of Austria, were sufficiently known 
to them, and sufficiently tempting to inspire the 
thought of imitation. Hence proceeded the re- 
bellions of Andalusia, Catalonia, Portugal, and 

British greatness. The naval and commercial splendour of the 
country they perceive, and the weight which this gives her 
among the nations ; and they are in general ignorant enough to 
ascribe it all to extraneous and accidental causes, not to the ex- 
cellence of her government and the freedom of ber people, 
causes which would have rendered almost any of the other na- 
tions of Europe as flourishing as herself. Sometimes they 
ascribe all her greatness to her navy, without considering that this 
navy itself must have a cause 5 sometimes they ascribe it to her 
colonies, without considering that both Spain and Portugal have 
colonies far better than her's. Here a great part of it is ascribed 
to Portugal, though all that we ever gained by Portugal was 
her trade ; and we should have enjoyed as good a trade if no 
particular connection had ever subsisted between us and Portu- 
gal. By debarring ourselves from the commerce of other na- 
tions, of France, for example, in those articles for which we 
dealt with Portugal, we lost more than we gained by the privi- 
leges she afforded us. 



Reformation of Luther. 247 

the states of Italy. Portugal was powerful enough 
under her new sovereigns to maintain her inde- 
pendence. But what befel the other revolted 
provinces, Catalonia, in particular, which cost a 
war of nineteen years to reduce? They lost all 
their rights and privileges, and received the treat- 
ment of conquered countries. The authority of 
the kings of Spain therefore became really en- 
larged and confirmed in consequence of that crisis; 
the numerous armies, which on the termination of 
the war returned into the country, served to com- 
plete the subjection of the nation. In the mean 
time, it must be observed that those internal dis- 
turbances, and the war of Catalonia, compelled 
Spain to accept of pretty severe terms in order to 
obtain peace. She became, on that account, 
more disposed to recognise the republic of the 
United Provinces. And she was obliged to cede 
Roussillon, Perpignan, Confians, with a consi- 
derable portion of the Low Countries, to France, 
and the important island of Jamaica to England. 

The reformation in religion however found 
little or no admission into Spain. Her geogra- 
phical position, and still more the difference be- 
tween her language and those of the other na- 
tions of Europe, occasioned interruptions. The 
Inquisition, introduced into the kingdom by Fer- 
dinand, stood more vigilantly than ever upon its 
guard: and more than one of the acts of cruelty 



248 Spirit and Influence of the 

which it perpetrated were owing to the terror with 
which it was struck by the noise of the storm 
wJiich resounded from afar. Nevertheless the 
effects, which the Reformation in general has pro- 
duced upon the spirit of the human race, have 
reached at last the Inquisition itself. At present, 
when perhaps there are more heretics and infidels 
in Spain than ever, the pile is more seldom than ever 
lighted up. Important reforms seem to be pre- 
paring in that country: and the kings of French 
extraction who are placed on the throne commit 
other errors in the management of the church 
than those of Philip IL 

FRANCE. 
While the Reformation spoke German it made 
few converts in France. When the Swiss of 
Berne, and Calvin taught it to express itself in 
French, it penetrated into that kingdom on all 
sides ; and presented itself in the form which it 
had received at Geneva. The nation was too en- 
lightened, and too spirited, not to admit the most 
rapid progress of the new ideas. From the very 
steps of the throne to the most obscure hamlets 
the doctrine of the reformers found numerous 
partisans; and the Romish communion was un- 
questionably at the moment of its extinction in 
France, if the consent of the monarchs had been 
obtained. All the persons of ordinary mind, who 



Reformation of Luther. %4Q 

compose the great bulk and majority of nations, 
would have been carried over. The Catholics, 
who might have desired to continue such, would 
have enjoyed the free exercise of their religion; 
the country would not have been torn to pieces by 
a long civil war ; there would have been no revo- 
cation of an edict of Nantz ; the immense power, 
which France might then have freely put forth, 
would have enabled her to guide at her pleasure, 
and with ease, the course of the storms of Ger- 
many and England; she would have remained 
tranquil at home, and abroad would have been the 
arbitress of Europe. 

Francis the first remained a Catholic. Some 
explanation has been given of the reasons which 
induced him to this conduct.* With this deter- 
mination it was necessary to act consistently, and 
to cut up heresy by the roots. Francis accord- 
ingly made such of his subjects as openly embraced 
the Reformation be burned and massacred without 
mercy. Out of his own kingdom he supported it, 
and became the ally of the German princes. This 
double and incoherent conduct of the French go- 
vernment destroyed the better part of its power, 

* At the end of the article of the present chapter intitled; 
First Inquiry, Internal Situation of the States. Author. 

In the same place are found in a note some observations on 
the probable course of events in France,, if the Reformation had 
been established in that country. 



250 Spirit mid Influence of the 

and cramped all its movements. The Protestants 
required to be watched at home. They refused 
their assistance, or served with great reluctance; 
and chose rather to desert, to emigrate, to join 
the ranks of their brethren in Germany, Switzer- 
land, Holland, than to remain exposed to perse- 
cution while they fought in company with their 
oppressors. Bv this means it became impossible 
for France to acquire that preponderance which, 
in aH0ther situation of things, would have be- 
longed to her. 

That the blood of the martyrs nourishes the 
church is a hackneyed observation. Henry II 
showed himself more intolerant than his father, 
and the Protestants united strongly together for 
their mutual support, and to prevent their total 
ruin. They began accordingly to form within the 
kingdom a formidable opposition, the effects of 
which were strongly felt during the sanguinary 
course of three succeeding reigns. The throne 
ceased to be a tribunal of justice and peace to the 
people: the king to be a father to his subjects. 
France tore her own bowels; and the aggression 
made on the side of authority drove the unhappy 
victims into the arms of rebellion. The shocking 
scenes of St. Bartholomew will afford a deplorable 
and eternal proof o„f the implacable hatred which 
guided the behaviour of the court to the Pro- 
\ testants. By this means, however, they were 



Reformation of Luther. 251 

consolidated into a political party. Princes and 
great men were at their head. They had armies, 
allies, and places of strength in the kingdom. 
The history of the intestine wars which desolated 
France on that occasion from the year 1562 to 
1 5QS, when an end was put to them hy the edict 
of Nantz, is too well known to require even an 
outline of it to be here presented. 

But animosities and commotions of this violence 
never take place without leaving behind them deep 
traces in the constitution of the government as 
well as in the character of the nation. They de- 
termine accordingly, for a long time to coore, its 
mode of existence, and its political circum stances. 
Let us endeavour to point out the principal con- 
sequences of the religious troubles in France at 
the end of the sixteenth century, as well in what 
relates to government as to the political character 
of the nation. 

The most fortunate event which can happen to 
a monarch whose authority in his dominions is 
still limited by the power of the great, or by any 
political body, is some decided opposition, an onen 
rebellion, which he may attack and subdue with 
arms in his hands. During that moment of ge- 
neral alarm and submission he finds he may do 
every thing; no one dares to challenge the infringe- 
ment either of rights or privileges; and he has the 
field clear to erect his power into greater indepen- 



252 Spirit and Influence of the 

dence of his people ever after. Many examples 
are afforded by history of this issue to the revolts 
and commotions of states. Undoubtedly this is 
not always the case; and the prince, on the other 
hand, if he is reduced to accommodation, loses 
a part of his authority, or is entirely stripped of 
it. The house of Austria appeared in these two 
situations at one and the same time by the events 
of the thirty years war; being obliged to yield to 
the German princes whom it expected to reduce 
to the state of vassals ; but engrossing all autho- 
rity in its own dominions, particularly those of 
Hungary and Bohemia, in which it established an 
unlimited and hereditary monarchy. The failure, 
however, of the emperors, in their attempts 
against the Protestant princes of Germany was 
contrasted by the success of the kings of France 
against the Protestant party in that country. A 
great extension and confirmation of the regal 
power was the consequence. Had France, at the 
period when the government became unlimited, 
and when its arm was the most vigorous, had a 
Louis XI, or a Philip II of Spain upon the throne, 
with what despotism would not its annals have 
been stained! But Providence, at that epoch, 
placed on it Henry IV, who, having so many in- 
juries to revenge, so many crimes to punish, 
studied only to throw all resentments into oblivion, 
and to heal every wound. Then was seen, what 



Reformation of Luther. 253 

Is but too rarely seen in the government of nations, 
absolute power employed solely in advancing the 
prosperity of the state and the happiness of each 
individual. The Catholic religion continued the 
religion of the state. But the edict of Nantz 
effaced its intolerance, and smoothed the irritation 
of the vanquished party, to whom liberty of con- 
science and a political existence were secured. 

These wise regulations satisfied reason and 
justice. With fanaticism the case was different. 
It aimed several blows at the life of the saviour 
of France, and at last accomplished his assassina- 
tion. After that unfortunate day (the 14th of 
May l6lO) the Protestant party, most reasonably 
alarmed by the intrigues of the new court, bestirred 
itself afresh, took up arms, and put itself in a 
position to support its rights. The impartiality of 
history cannot blame this conduct; but neither 
can it blame that of Richelieu in resisting an 
armed faction, which formed a state within the 
state, which invited foreigners to enter it, often 
frustrated the best schemes of the government, 
and continually threatened its existence. In the 
situation to which things were brought, it was his 
duty to attack them. How he proceeded is suffi- 
ciently well known, and what increase the royal 
authority gained from his new victories. It is to 
the final subjugation of the religious opposition 
under Louis XIII, that the legal despotism of the 



254 Spirit and hiflaence of the 

three succeeding reigns is to be ascribed, which 
were terminated by the horrible catastrophe of the 
last revolution. 

If on the one hand the government had thus 
succeeded in rendering its power unlimited, there 
remained in the nation, on the other, a fermen- 
tation, a spirit of animosity, of resistance and 
contradiction, which here and there exhibited itself 
against the ordinances which issued from the 
throne. From the edict of Nantz to the times 
immediately preceding its revocation, when it 
began to be openly violated, the parliaments had 
partly been composed of Huguenots. During this 
period it was natural for that body to shew itself 
refractory, and to be animated with a certain 
spirit of republicanism and of opposition to the 
court. When the huguenots were excluded, this 
spirit did not depart with them. The parliaments 
were elated with their influence, and with the 
trial which they had sometimes made of their 
power. This is not the sole cause of the subse- 
quent conduct of the Parliaments, but this con- 
tributed to it strongly. Among them accordingly 
it was that the spirit of independence which re- 
mained in the nation took refuge, and there the 
nation found it in 1788, when ruined finances, an 
effeminate court, the principles of republican 
liberty propagated by some writers from the book? 
of the English and other Protestants, or imported 



Reformation of Luther. 255 

from Pennsylvania by the French army, when a 
thousand circumstances in short gave it the im- 
pulse which it then received, and which was ra- 
pidly communicated through the nation. It is no 
secret what influence in the general commotion 
was produced by the ancient resentments of the 
huguenot party, which was far from being extinct, 
and which it had pleased the government too often 
to exasperate before the reign of Louis XVI. # 
Richelieu, in fact, wanted only to subdue the 

* Those who are but superficially acquainted with the history 
of France, who unfortunately are too many in this country, as 
the currency of so much nonsense with regard to France has 
sufficiently proved, will no doubt feel a little surprised when 
they read that the reformation in religion had a direct and pow- 
erful influence in bringing about the Revolution. The con- 
catenation of events,, however, here pointed out will satisfy all 
those who are capable of tracing the progress of nations with an 
enlightened eye. In feet the revocation of the edict of Nantz, 
which produced effects so violent in the nation, which exhibited 
such an example of the government, and left such a feeling 
among the people, is not a very distant event. Till that period 
Protestantism had been widely spread in the nation ; and during 
the long course of years in which it continued to produce its 
effects, communicated a great portion of its free and enlightened 
spirit. This spirit, before the revocation of the edict of Nantz, 
had taken such root even among the Catholics as that disastrous 
event itself was not able to extirpate. It lay for near a whole 
century gaining strength unperceived: till at last it burst forth 
with irresistible violence -, and by means of the folly and kna- 
very with which it was unfortunately endeavoured to be guided, 
produced so much mischief. 



256 Spirit and Influence of the 

dissenters, not to exterminate them. The peace 
of Rochelle, in 162Q, left to them some privi- 
leges and the free exercise of their religion. In a 
short time, in spite of the word of a king, all 
those promises were violated. Persecution, both 
secret and open, increased every day, till the for- 
mal revocation of the edict of Nantz, which gave 
it free course; a lamentable epoch, which reduced 
to beggary a multitude of families, produced the 
emigration of the best and most industrious citi- 
zens, the descendants of whom are still found in 
all the Protestant states of Europe, to whose 
prosperity they have greatly contributed while 
their loss was proportional to their unjust country. 
Such of the unfortunate Protestants as remained 
in France lost all political existence; they were in- 
cessantly, mercilessly pursued; and like beasts of 
the chase, their blood often flowed under the 
knife of the executioner and soldier. Usage 
such as this deeply penetrates the heart; and the 
resentment is propagated from father to son. # 
The final explosion of popish intolerance was over 

*" May we not here be allowed to consider the execution of 
Calas, as one of the events, which, by the celebrity which 
Voltaire gave to it, and the animated things which he wrote 
and published on that occasion contributed most powerfully to 
inflame the minds of the people against the fanaticism of the 
Catholic priests, and against the authority which suppoited it. 

Author, 



Reformation of Luther* 25*7 

at last. The unfortunate Louis XVI, whom a 
great deal of Catholicism had not been able to 
render inhuman, was labouring to heal those 
wounds, when the storm arose of which he was 
the most illustrious victim. Since religion has 
risen again, tolerating and friendly to liberty 
in France, the French dissenters have rebuilt 
their peaceful temples, and enjoy the right of 
professing the religion of the Gospel according to 
their own ideas. By this wise procedure, if it is 
regularly maintained, the consular government 
will eradicate for ever in the nation the tares of 
religion, which produce the most noxious of all 
the seeds of discord* 

ITALY. 
We have already spoken of the causes which 
rendered a Reformation in religion impracticable 
in Italy.* Let us add the vicinity of the holy 
see, the interest which all the little powers of 
Italy felt in avoiding its displeasure, and above all 
the dread of the imperial arms, which would have 
overrun in an instant, and without resistance, the 
first state which should have dared to appear 
friendly to Luther. Besides, the elegant Italians 
regarded as in a great measure barbarians those 
people of the north, among whom the Reform- 
ation was carried on. The more enlightened 

* In the article of Part 1st, entitled Reformation, Author 
S 



25 S Spirit and Influence of the 

among them rejoiced at it in secret; more than 
one prince felt satisfaction at seeing the Pope 
humbled; but no one ventured to expose himself 
openly. Those whom the Reformation gained 
repaired to Switzerland, or other countries, where 
they might enjoy it at their ease, as the two So- 
cinuses, natives of Sienna. Italy, which had al- 
ready lost so great a part of its commercial im- 
portance by the discovery of America and the 
Cape of Good Hope, completed this misfortune 
by the loss of that also which the capital of the 
church brought into it. The first circumstance 
had deprived it of the commerce of spiceries, and 
other luxuries of the east; the second deprived it 
partly of that of indulgences and benefices, and 
dried up several of the sources of its wealth. The 
arts of painting and music, attached to that de- 
lightful soil, continued to flourish there; but in 
true civilization, and the high improvement of the 
mind, the people, in general, remained behind 
the other nations of Europe. The events which 
since have agitated Italy, and even changed :: ; 
appearance, are little, or not at all connected 
with the Reformation. 

POLAND. 

The vicinity of Poland to Bohemia and Ger- 
many, and the general use made in it of the Latin 
language, afforded a ready admission into that 



Reformation of Luther* log 

country of the Reformation. It made rapid and 
vigorous progress there during the latter part of 
the sixteenth century. The weak and negligent 
police which was maintained in the small cities, 
and in the flat country, where every great lord 
usurped a species of sovereignty, made Poland a 
place of refuge for the most audacious innovators, 
such as were not tolerated even among the Pro- 
testants. They repaired thither in multitudes 
from Moravia, Silesia, Bohemia, Sweden, Ger- 
many, and even Switzerland. The two Socinuses, 
uncle and nephew, but particularly the last, made 
a great numbers of proselites, and founded there 
the sect which goes by their name; a sect very 
powerful in Poland, of whose system the distin- 
guishing article is the respect paid to Jesus Christ, 
whom they honour as an extraordinary character 
sent by God, but not as one of the persons of 
the Godhead. All those different sects, which in 
Poland neither met with encouragement nor op- 
position from the central government, could not 
at first, on account of this relaxing indifference, 
obtain the same life and importance, or unfold 
themselves as they did in other places. Their 
systems remained the opinions of individuals in a 
nation not much enlightened, and produced in it 
no salutary fermentation. The business was, at 
first, all confined, to some disputes between the the- 
ologians themselves, and to the title of dissenters 

s 2 



260 Spirit and Influence of the 

applied in general to all who were not Catholics, 
But when Charles XII marched to conquer Poland, 
and had gained some partisans in the country; 
notwithstanding perhaps the smallest part of 
them only were Protestants, yet as the king of 
Sweden was a Lutheran, the suspicions of the 
Catholics fell upon that sect; animosity was lighted 
up; and the dissenters became then a political 
party, obliged to take arms to defend themselves, 
and to maintain their rights. Dissenter, and par- 
tisan of Sweden, became synonimous terms. This 
event completed the accumulation of discord in a 
country, the constitution of which exposed it but 
too much to the animosity of faction. When 
Charles XII, the promoter of these new divisions, 
was conquered and reduced, the Catholics became 
persecutors, and the dissenters were oppressed. 
The diet of 17^7 began even to deprive them 
of their civil rights. From that time the rancour 
of the two parties was not to be mollified, even 
though no Swedish faction was concerned. To 
crush the dissenters became a principle of govern- 
ment, and of the Catholic party. The Jesuits, 
more especially, were employed in that work, and 
acquitted themselves in their employment on a 
systematic plan, and with a steadiness which do 
honour to their sagacity. It is to those circum- 
stances that this society owes the advantage of sub- 
sisting as yet in that country. Thus at a period 



Reformation of Luther. > 16 i 

when religious troubles had ceased throughout 
Europe, they began in unhappy Poland. Her 
neighbours had long been in the habit of inter- 
fering in her domestic affairs. It did not escape 
the penetrating eye of the great Catharine, when 
she ascended the throne of Russia, to what ad- 
vantage her politics might turn the anarchy in 
which the Poles were involved. In the years 
1764 and J 766 she declared herself the Protec- 
tress of the dissenters. In 1768 a Russian mi- 
nister and Russian soldiers gave law to the diet, 
and arrested several of its principal members. 
The Catholics, reduced to despair, assembled, in 
confederacy, at Baar. They invited to their as- 
sistance the Turks and the French. The first 
only obeyed the invitation ; to ravage the country 
wherever they appeared. The confederated Ca- 
tholics, as barbarous as their foreign allies, exer- 
cised unparalleled cruelties on all dissenters, with 
a fanaticism worthy of the l6th century. At last 
Russia, having brought Prussia and Austria to 
enter into her views, proceeded to a first partition 
of the territory of Poland ; this was followed by 
a second, and soon after, as is well known, by a 
third, which finally erased that country from the 
list of European nations. The bloody expedition 
which produced this last catastrophe recalls the 
memory of that period when the right of war 
consisted in the general massacre and externa- 



262 Spirit and Influence of the 

nation of the vanquished. It properly terminates 
the history of a community, in which civil war, 
intestine convulsions, and the madness of political 
and religious factions presented the ordinary 
scenes which each generation was condemned to 
witness,* 

RUSSIA. 

The lion's share which Russia obtained in the 
division of Poland is the circumstance by which 
the political influence of the Reformation, and of 
the religious disturbances of Europe, has been 
chiefly felt in that country. Into this account, 

* The first misery of Poland arose from the form of her go- 
vernment j a mixed government, composed of monarchy and 
aristocracy, in which the aristocracy predominated as the mo- 
narchy did in the old government of France. The effect of a 
bad government in general is to convert into poison that which 
in its own nature is most salutary. It is not generally under- 
stood how closely connected with the Reformation are many of 
those events in Poland which have been most deplored. The 
short sketch here presented of the latter part of the history of 
that country opens some general views of great importance 
which politicians have too little observed. The weakness of the 
government, and the vicinity to powerful and rapacious states, 
have made those intestine seeds operate to the destruction of 
the state which in other situations, as in Ireland, for example, 
the strength of the defending government, and the distance 
from neighbours have only permitted to operate to the propaga- 
tion of misery and disorder, the absolute weakness of that par- 
ticular island, and the diminution of the power and resources 
of the whole empire. 



Reformation of Luther. 263 

however, ought also to be taken certain ideas of 
administration and government which Peter the 
first acquired in Holland and England. At the 
time of the Reformation, Russia, reposing in the 
bosom of the Grecian church, took no interest in 
the dissentions which harassed the western. But 
Peter the first, after he had seen what was passing 
among the Protestant sovereigns, executed on his 
return a reform in the Russian church, of which 
he declared himself the supreme head, and re- 
nounced subjection to the patriarchs of Constan- 
tinople, as the kings of England had done with 
regard to Rome. Perhaps too allowance ought to 
be made for the influence which the Protestant 
and liberal education of the young princess of 
Zerbst, at the court of Brunswick, had upon the 
ever memorable reign of Catharine II.* At any 
rate the tolerating policy of the Czars attracted 
in several corners of the vast empire of Russia 
colonies of Protestant dissenters, as well from our 
southern countries as from Poland, Germany, 
and Holland. The anabaptists and Moravian bre- 
thren have there several establishments. In some 
provinces certain sects of ascetic christians have 

* Catharine II was the daughter of the Prince of Anhalt- 
Zerbst j aud educated in all the knowledge which distinguished 
the most enlightened part of Germany ; an advantage by which 
her own quick, and vigorous understanding enabled her fully to 
benefit. 



264 Spirit and Influence of the 

been propagated, who lead a sort of monkish life, 
under the title of Theodosians, Philippans, and 
Kaskolnies, and who have all the enthusiasm and 
fervour of the ancient Cenobites. Several Dutch- 
men, attracted by this religious toleration, during 
the first years of the reign of Catharine II, esta- 
blished some flourishing colonies on the banks of 
the Volga. The robber Pugatschew soon after 
exterminated them. 

SECOND INQUIRY. 
EXTERNAL SITUATION OE THE STATES OE EU- 

ROPE, IN REGARD TO ONE ANOTHER. THE 

BALANCE OF POWER. 

Before the fifth century of our aera the greater 
part of Europe was Roman, and by consequence 
subject to a certain unity of action. What part 
of it was not so endeavoured to maintain its inde- 
pendence against the common enemy of all na 
tions; and in this was comprehended nearly the 
whole political system of the time, When the 
people of the north and north-east invaded the 
south and west, a chaos, which lasted for several 
ages, confounded all Europe. The wandering 
hordes of new conquerors founded empires of a 
clay's duration, destroyed immediately by new 
hordes, which forced the others on before them. 
By degrees however those irregular movements 
abated, dominions were formed, and groups of 
people were established within the boundaries ot 



Reformation of Luther, Q.&5 

the ancient divisions of Europe, In Germany, 
in Italy, Gaul, Iberia, and England a sort of 
communities was formed, the limits and constitu- 
tion of which were often changed, and in which 
there was scarcely any public law but that of the 
strongest. This new situation was only a step, 
to arrive at another more advantageous. The 
heads of those disorderly combinations, in which 
every feudal lord acted the sovereign, confirmed 
at last their supreme authority, reduced a number 
of little princes to the condition of subjects, and 
thus founded a stable authority, and created mo- 
narchies and empires. In the first feeble condition 
however of this new order of affairs, the confusion 
and anarchy were still great. The Gothic kings 
of Spain were engaged in conflict with the Moor- 
ish kings from Africa: the kings of France were 
contending with the kings of England who had 
invaded a part of their provinces; with the dukes 
of Britany, Burgundy, Lorraine, and others. 
Italy was the prey of eternal invasions, of con- 
quests followed by defeats, of the flux and reflux 
of armies in perpetual succession : Hungary was 
given up to the Mussulmans and Imperialists: 
Germany beheld civil wars without object and 
without end maintained between her different 
princes. There were in Europe accordingly as 
many political systems as there were groups of 
states within the limits of each country \ and in 



266 Spirit and Influence of the 

each of those systems ignorance and disorder 
usually reigned. Momentary or local interests 
decided every thing. No one thought of any thing 
but his own danger or his own project. Alliances 

were ill formed and of short duration. The eve 

j 

of the statesman seldom reached beyond the 
boundaries of a single country. Hungary was 
nothing to England. Sweden was nothing to 
Spain. The bodies politic were not as yet in that 
universal contact with one another, which at pre- 
sent forms in Europe a confederacy of states, em- 
bracing already almost the whole both of the 
old and new worlds. Leagues and alliances had, 
indeed, before this time been formed, of a mo- 
mentary duration ; but they had in general been 
loose, and without any fixed and durable plan. 
Let any one. to be convinced of this, read the 
history of most of those alliances; that, for ex- 
ample, of the absurd and ridiculous league of 
Cambray, of which our upright Louis XII was 
the dupe. It must however be granted that the 
numerous negotiations, and short lived coalitions of 
that period, discover the perception which began 
generally to be obtained of the utility of a general 
combination, of a mutual support, and of prin- 
ciples by which to be directed. The partial sys- 
tems had nearly found, already, their centers of 
gravity. That of the general system was now 
attempted to be ascertained. 



Reformation of Luther. 267 

It has been already stated that the crusades had 
in the first instance accustomed the people of the 
west to a general union, to a sort of European 
brotherhood. Catholicism always produced this 
good effect. The pontifical monarchy taught the 
princes and nations of Europe to regard them- 
selves all as countrymen, being all equally subjects 
of Rome. This center of unity was, during those 
ages, a real benefit to mankind. But it derived 
its strength from opinion, and the condescension 
of princes. As soon as abuses, too gross, made 
opinion revolt, after the princes had brought 
down the power of the popes, and a long schism 
had presented to doubtful Christendom the spec- 
tacle of several popes pretending at once to the 
same power, and of councils which in their turn 
pretended to a power above all popes, that center 
of unity lost its attractive power, and the general 
system which fell from it by degrees appeared in 
danger of being thrown into the ancient chaos. 
Meanwhile certain ponderous bodies had been 
formed, sufficiently powerful to become centers 
of action in the new state of things. Austria, 
which then predominated, France, England, and 
Spain, had acquired a strong internal vigour ; their 
eyes were directed to one another, and nothing 
was wanting but some decisive event to bring 
those great bodies in contact, to make them rivals 
or friends, in a word to combine them in a gene- 



26b Spirit and Influence of the 

ral system. Such an event was the Reformation, 
and the wars to which it gave occasion.* 

* n Those interests/' says a writer of great genius, " which 
before that time had been national, continued so no longer, 
when the interest of religion bound together the men of dif- 
ferent countries, and the subjects of different governments, 
who formerly had been unknown to one another. The differ- 
ence cf language, of manners, and character had reared a wall 
of separation between the different people of Europe, which 
nothing as yet had been able to shake. It was destroyed by the 
reformation of the church. A sentiment more powerful over, 
the heart of man, than even the love of his country, rendered 
him capable of perceiving and feeling beyond the limits of that 
country. The French Calvinist found himself more in contact 
with the Calvinist in England, Germany, Holland, Geneva, 
than With the Catholic of his own country. The triumph of 
the Batavian armies was much more agreeable to him than the 
triumph of the armies of his own sovereign, which fought for 
popery. Thus did the men, who antecedently were troops 
employed by princes in their personal affairs, become by degrees 
the judges of their own destiny, and their minds were deter- 
mined by views suggested by their dearest affections. One 
zealously offers to a partner in the same faith that assistance 
which would have been given with reluctance to a mere neigh- 
bour. The German quits his family to defend, against the 
enemy of his religion, the Frenchman who has embraced it. 
The Frenchman abandons a country in which his conscience is 
not free, and in which he is subject to a thousand hardships, 
and goes to shed his blood for the safety of Holland. On the 
banks of the Loire and Seine, Swiss and Germans were seen 
righting with Swiss and Germans for the order of succession to 
the throne of France. The Dane quits his marshes, and the 
Swede his snows, and come tc break the chains which had beer: 



Reformation of Luther. 269 

That interest, new both to princes and people, 
which the revolution in the church generated in 
the minds of men, became a general concern 
throughout Christendom, a concern not dependent 
upon the local circumstances of any particular 
country, and superior to them all in importance. 
States, the existence of which was previously of 
very little consequence with regard to one ano- 
ther, then began to feel a sort of sympathy which 
prepared the way for their union. France joined 
with Sweden, England with Holland, and Bavaria 
with Spain. As the views of men extended, these 
extended their foresight, and raised a spirit of pre- 
caution. When a common interest was once 
created, this required common measures. The 
designs of the house of Austria had been clearly 
discovered; and they had been openly resisted* 
To find a weight to counterbalance that ambitious 
power, and prevent it from loading its own scale 
at its pleasure, became the most important object 
of Europe in its new confederated situation. 
Hence the grand idea of a balance among the 
powers of Europe, an idea which formed the soul 

forged for Germany. All learn by these new connections to 
extend their benevolence beyond the narrow boundaries of their 
country, and to mix in the great family of human beings. 
Loosening their attachment to the soil of a particular district of 
the earth, they become Europeans, they become citizens of the 
world." Scheller, Hisfoire de la guerre de trentc ans. Author,, 



270 Spirit and Influence of the 

of the negotiations of Westphalia, and of all the 
public affairs of Europe since the treaty which 
was the result of those negotiations. 

At that time Austria, with the Catholic states, 
was at one end of the beam ; at the other all the 
powers which had contended for the Reformation ; 
with France also included. The original principle 
then of the balance of power in Europe was, in 
fact, nothing but the opposition of the Catholic 
and Protestant parties. New circumstances quickly 
appeared which gave the things a very different 
aspect. But, in general, it may be regarded as 
the division of the bodies politic of Europe into 
two groups, nearly equal in power, and in each of 
which sometimes one state plays the principal cha- 
racter, and sometimes another. * 

Long before the states of Europe became united 
together in a common system, Italy and Germany 
had formed partial systems or confederacies, 
within which the politics of each of those coun- 
tries endeavoured to maintain a certain balance, 
and to restrain one party by another. It is possi- 

* So very imperfect and confused are the ideas in general 
entertained of the balance of power, about which, however, 
so many people are always ready to talk so much, that the 
statement, simple and obvious as it is, that this balance is 
formed by the division of the bodies politic of Europe into two 
groups, nearly equal in strength, appears, in some sort^ a dis- 
covery. 



Reformation of Luther, 271 

ble that this confined system was the type after 
which the idea of the universal balance was 
formed; but how much more extensive and valu- 
able the views which were derived from this! 
Politics, which in Italy particularly had hitherto 
been only a tissue of petty trick, and low craft, 
of perfidy, cruelty, and meanness, became more 
elevated and liberal; its principles more evident 
aiid better known. The greater number of the 
powerful governments which by their ministers 
took part in negotiations communicated^ light to 
one another. Among those governments some 
were animated with probity, and candour. The 
little Italian spirit was by degrees banished from 
cabinets. No doubt some cfegree of craft and 
guile is still mixed iwjth politics; and deceit is 
practised here and there: but mutual deceit is not 
so easy, nor even so necessary. Since the long 
and universal struggle in which, by the Reforma- 
tion, all the powers of Europe were engaged, it 
has been seen that true politics always studied real 
strength, and that of this the source was found in 
the prosperity of the state, in commerce, in the 
worth of the public spirit, and in the veneration 
of the people for their government. The power 
and resources of each country are known to all 
the rest. The science of statistics is daily render- 
ing this knowledge more exact; and in this parti- 
cular it is now hardly possible for governments to 



2/2 Spirit and Influence of the 

impose upon one another. Each perceives the 
necessity of protecting its ally against the enter- 
prises of an enemy; that the weak ought to be 
defended against the strong, whose power would 
become too great if allowed to proceed. Exclu- 
sive nationality then has ceased to be the ruling 
principle in European politics. That which rises 
is observed and depressed; that which threatens 
to fall is supported. The disproportionate eleva- 
tion of one power serves only to draw closer the 
tie which binds together the rest. Even the most 
inconsiderable states have, in that system, ac-^ 
quired a real importance. To watch other coun- 
tries, while you wish them well; to unfold the 
powers of your own by a wise administration ; such 
is in general the new direction which politics have 
taken since the Reformation. 

First period of the balance of Europe, from 
1520 to 1556. 

Charles V and Francis the First are the princi- 
pal authors of the events of that period. The' 
colossal magnitude of the Austrian power afforded 
the first occasion to the other states of perceiving 
the necessity of combining closely together against 
too powerful a neighbour. From that moment 
the course which France had to pursue was de- 
cided, and her sovereign became, by the nature of 
things, the most formidable rival of Charles. But 



Reformation of Luther. 27.3 

to effect the alliance of the states concerned, and 
to make this confederacy act with the requisite 
spirit and energy, was not an easy enterprise. The 
Reformation was the event by which the means of 
accomplishing this object were obtained ; and by 
its assistance the grand opposition was systema- 
tized. Henry VIII who might have held in it a 
high rank, acted with duplicity, was afraid of ap- 
pearing subordinate to Francis the First, in a word 
was too much engaged with his, mistresses and 
theology. In compensation Francis introduced 
the Ottoman power into the new system. France, 
Turkey, and the Protestant princes of the north, 
-composed the first united mass destined to form a 
counterpoise to German Austria, Spain, and Bur- 
gundy. These two contending masses were 
drawn, the one around the Protestant party, and 
the other around the Catholic party in Germany. 
It was generally felt that the balance in the empire 
would decide the balance in the rest of Europe, 
and that if Charles V triumphed over the Pro- 
testant princes, his power would become irresisti- 
ble. Henry II, who succeeded Francis the First, 
formed a close alliance with Maurice of Saxony. 
At last in ] 556 the formidable Charles disappeared 
from the stage of events, and shut himself up in 
a cloister. His German states were separated from 
Spain and Burgundy, which formed the inherit- 

T 



274 Spirit and Influence of the 

ance of his son Philip. A change was experienced 
in the system of Europe. 

Second period, from 1556 to 1603. 
Philip II of Spain and Elizabeth of England 
become now the two most conspicuous personages ; 
the one at the head of the Catholic, and the other 
at the head of the Protestant party. The peace- 
able Rodolphus II leaves Austria and the rest of 
Germany to breathe. The drama is brought upon 
a new stage. Great Britain is Protestant, and the 
Low Countries revolt from Philip. Spain, on the 
one hand, at the head of the Catholic party; 
England and the United Provinces, on the other, 
at the head of the Protestant party, occupy the 
history of that period. The new republic, while 
yet in its infancy, ascended to the rank of the 
greatest powers. The spring of oppression, too 
violently bent, had in her produced the redaction 
of the spring of liberty. The efforts employed 
to subdue her tended only to make her unfold 
more rapidly the whole of her powers. Had not 
France then languished under feeble princes who 
appeared to have no energy but in nourishing fac- 
tion, indulging fanaticism, and prosecuting their 
Protestant subjects; had she not been reduced to 
the miserable, contradictory, and difficult task, of 
protecting the Reformation abroad, while she 



Reformation of Luther. 275 

destroyed it at home, it cannot be doubted but 
that she might have easily with a powerful hand 
assisted the Batavian league, and attached it to 
herself for ever, to the prejudice of England. 
That country has since understood well how to 
derive advantage from that friendship of Holland 
which France had neglected. It would be super- 
fluous here to relate at length all that we have 
thus lost during two centuries, and all that our 
rivals have gained. Every one knows it but too 
well.* 

In the preceding period land forces decided 

* This is another instance of the anxiety of Villers to ascribe 
the power of Great Britain to extraneous and accidental, not to 
internal and independent causes. It is astonishing that preju- 
dice should have betrayed him into so weak a statement. Had 
France assisted Holland with her utmost powers she would have 
only established the independence of Holland a little sooner. 
Her government absolutely prevented her from reaping those 
commercial advantages from Holland which England reaped, 
and which she would have reaped, whatever connection might 
have subsisted between Holland and France. Besides, when- 
ever the power of France came to be predominant in Europe, 
and to threaten in its turn the general independence, as in the 
time of Louis XIV, it was so absolutely necessary for the ex- 
istence of Holland that she should join the enemies of France, 
that her alliance with them must have taken place, whatever 
friendship might formerly have subsisted between her and that 
country 5 a friendship too by which France would most probably 
have only hastened the maturity of the principles of liberty, as 
she did by her friendship with the united states of America, 

T 2 



276 Spirit and Influence of tlte 

the fortune of war; in the present period the geo- 
graphical position of the combatants required 
fleets, and the phenomenon of maritime powers 
meeting in hostile shock on the ocean was beheld 
for the first time in modern Europe. Since that 
epoch the superiority of naval has been found of 
consequence still more decisive than that of mili- 
tary armaments. The merchants of Holland en- 
grossed a great part of the navigation of both 
worlds; and shewed what a commercial state, by 
the assistance of its ships alone, is capable of be 
coming. The religious spirit had given birth to 
the new republic; but this gave birth to the spirit 
of commerce, which by degrees deprived the 
other of its influence, and at last entirely expelled 
it from politics, to reign in its stead. Thus in 
the destiny of states are all things connected to- 
gether and serve to unfold one another. 

In the struggle which occupies this whole pe- 
riod the opposition of the two religious parties is 
more distinct than ever, as the one was altogether 
Catholic without any mixture, and the other alto- 
gether Protestant. As the Catholic party accord- 
ingly contended for the royal authority in oppo- 
sition to rebellious subjects, and as the Protestant 
party contended in support of those rebellious 
subjects, and for the establishment of a republic, 
it thence w r as formed into an express and funda- 
mental maxim of state, that Catholicism was the 



Reformation of Luther. 177 

best support of absolute power, while Protestan- 
tism was favourable to rebellion and the repub i 
lican spirit. It would not, even in our days, be 
possible to drive this maxim out of tbe heads of 
many statesmen. It may in one respect be true ; 
but we have already sufficiently shewn in what 
sense. 

The powerful Elizabeth died after Philip: The 
United Provinces stood by their own strength: 
And a new epoch was formed in the balance of 
Europe. 

Third Period, from 1603 to l648. 

The preceding period formed only an interme- 
diate act of the long tragedy of German troubles, 
an act filled up by the scenes of Dutch freedom, 
and of the civil wars of France. After six years 
of war, and three of disorder and uncertainty, 
the league of Smalcalde had extorted from Charles 
V, fatigued and weakened, the peace of Augs- 
burg, which is dated from 1553, but was not en- 
tirely confirmed by the emperor till 1555, a short 
time before he retired from the throne. In l6l8 
the war was kindled anew with more intensity 
than before, and lasted for thirty years together 
between the emperor and the Protestant princes, 
till the treaty of Westphalia put an end to it in 
2 648. 

Spain was fallen into a lethargy. England was 



17 S Spirit and Influence of the 

agitated by those terrible convulsions, of which 
we made mention above in the article assigned to 
that country. Henry IV had ascended the throne 
of France ; but the first years of the reign of that 
great prince had been spent in rectifying and re- 
storing what had been disordered and destroyed 
within his kingdom by so many violent proceedings. 
Had it been the will of Providence to leave him a 
little longer to the people whose idol he was, from 
what evils would not his genius have saved Eu- 
rope! The thirty years w r ar would either have 
been prevented by him, or would have been much 
sooner terminated. Already had he restored to 
France her position and importance. He had 
placed her in her natural situation, that is, in 
counterpoise to Austria, the power of which he 
had resolved to restrain. He had become the 
protector of the Protestant party in Germany, and 
resolved to maintain peace and equilibrium in the 
European republic. Who can say to what extent 
the will of such a hero, seconded by a minister 
like Sully, would have operated upon the fate of 
the world ? The scheme of peace is well known, 
which in the head of the Abbe St. Pierre could be 
nothing but a dream, but in that of a powerful 
monarch had at least some means of being carried 
into execution. Henry was cut oft in the midst 
of his noble career. France again, after his loss, 
fell into the depths of weakness and anarchy under 



Reformation of Luther. 279 

a minor king. She formed an alliance with Spain, 
which had been the cause to her of so many evils, 
and became the sport of all the petty intrigues of 
the Italian court of Mary of Medicis. It was not 
till the year 1 624 that the skilful hand of Riche- 
lieu was applied with efficacy to save her. During 
the early part, therefore, of this period, she was 
of no importance in the general system. 

Sweden speedily declined: France arose, and 
new alterations occurred in the balance of power 
in Europe. But it belongs not to us to trace 
them. After this the influence, at least the direct 
influence, of the Reformation ceased to be felt. 
The interests of religion no longer formed the 
prevailing principle of activity in the councils of 
princes. The ambition of Louis XIV, the Spanish 
succession, colonies, the establishment of Prussia, 
the interference of Great Britain in the affairs of 
the continent, and other events, succeeded to oc- 
cupy, the field. Still, however, the maintenance 
of the balance continues to be the fundamental 
principle of the public law of Europe ; and when 
in our own days new events disturb it for a few 
moments, we behold the leaders of nations ex- 
erting themselves to re-establish it, not indeed 
with the same materials, but at least on the same 
foundation as before. Individuals change in the 
political order, as in the rest of nature; but the 



280 Spirit and Influence of the 

laws of the great whole remain constantly the 



same. 



Recapitulation of the Effects of the Reformation, 
in regard to Politics, 
Europe, plunged during several centuries into 
stupor and apathy, interrupted only by wars, or 
rather incursions and depredations, without an 
object useful to the human species, all at once 
receives new life and activity. A mighty and uni- 
versal interest agitates the nations; their powers 
are unfolded; and their minds opened to new po- 
litical ideas. Preceding revolutions had thrown 
into action only the arms of men, this set their 
minds also to work. The people, who till now 
had been counted only as cattle/ passively subject 
to the caprice of their leaders, begin to act from 
themselves, and to feel their own importance and 
utility. Those who embrace the Reformation 
make a common cause with their sovereigns, and 
hence arises a close union, a community of inte- 
rest and action between the prince and his subjects. 
Both are for ever delivered from the excessive and 
burthensome power of the clergy, as well as from 
the struggle, injurious to all Europe, and which 
lasted so long between the popes and the emperors, 
for the supreme dominion in that quarter of the 
globe. The social order is regulated and improved. 



Reformation of Luther, 281 

The Austrian power is restrained within due limits; 
that of France is raised and opposes it; the im- 
portance of durable alliances begins to be felt; 
the bodies politic of Europe form a connected 
system in which one part is balanced by another; 
a whole regularly organised, of which formerly 
not even an idea was conceived. States, such as 
Sweden and Turkey, which scarcely till that time 
existed with regard to the rest, obtain rank and 
importance in that system. Others, such as 
Holland, are at once produced by the mighty 
shock, and from the beginning acquire preponde- 
rance. The foundations are laid of the Prussian 
monarchy, and of the American republic. In 
politics a general spirit is formed which embraces 
all Europe. The art of negociation is improved; 
becomes more frank and more certain; and the 
course of affairs more clear and simple. In this 
state of union and contact, commotions and wars 
become more general, but they become also of 
shorter duration, and their rigour is softened by 
better and more humane laws of nations. 

In one part of Europe the church ceases to 
form a foreign state within the state ; whence it is 
easy to foresee that this change will every where 
be produced; and that the head of the church 
will be confined to the mere spiritual supremacy. 
Finally the Catholic clergy reform their conduct 
by the example of the Protestants; and they gain 



2 g2 Spirit and Influence of the 

in morals, in knowledge, and esteem, what they 
lose in power and riches. 

At the same time all the governments in Eu- 
rope increase their internal power ; those which 
are Protestant by the union which they form with 
the mass of the people, and by the wealth, prero- 
gatives, and jurisdiction of the church, upon 
which they seize; those which are Catholic by 
placing themselves on a formidable footing of war, 
by reducing the protestants in their own domi- 
nions, and thus subduing one part of their subjects 
by the other, the citizens by the soldiers. 

Since the discovery of America and the Cape 
of Good Hope, the commerce of the two worlds 
had been concentrated in the hands of Spain and 
Portugal. Those two countries, however, as al- 
most all other countries before the 1 6th century, 
had but a throne, and no people. All national 
activity proceeded from the government. The 
ignorance of princes directed a commerce, avari- 
cious, as well as ill understood, and the profits of 
which were absorbed by the luxury of the court, 
and mismanagement. How long might the true 
spirit of commerce, might navigation and disco- 
very have yet languished, if two states, rendered 
active by the Reformation (states in which the 
whole nation unfolded its powers, employed all 
its resources, and seconded the operations of go- 
vernment) had not found themselves drawn 5 and 



Reformation of Luther. 283 

as it were constrained to seize upon the trident ? 
Without the religious impulse produced by Luther 
such would not have been the order of events. 
Holland, a poor portion of the Austrian domi- 
nions, would have remained without a navy and 
without commerce; England would not have had 
that volcanic power she exerted against Spain, nor 
would it have been turned in that direction. In 
place of this the maritime and commercial system 
in Europe has, by means of those two nations, 
acquired a magnitude and power proportioned to 
the vigour which inspired them. Their fleets, 
and skilful sailors, have traversed every sea, and 
surrounded the globe itself with their track. 
Their example has been followed by France, ever 
emulous of all that is grand and useful. Thus 
has the fermentation produced in Europe by reli- 
gious opinions raised up a new order of things 
more beneficial to human nature, and extended 
its effects to both divisions of the globe. 



<Z84 Spirit and Influence of the 

CHAPTER SECOND. 

On the Progress of Knowledge, 

A.BOUT two hundred years ago, a man of ge- 
nius, for having discovered and collected the in- 
contestible proofs of the motion of the earth, 
was condemned as an heretic to perpetual impri- 
sonment by the court of inquisition. Now, a 
complete treatise on the celestial motions is pub- 
lished without restraint. Its illustrious author 
beholds the sciences honoured in his person by the 
first dignities of the state. * # * How much pro- 
gress made in so short a time; and how vast a 
space gone over since the days of Galileo!" 

Such were the late expressions of M. Biot, 
when he announced the third volume of the im- 
mortal work of Senator Laplace. This natural 
and just reflection of a distinguished votary of 
the sciences, who perhaps in penning it never 
thought of the Reformation of Luther, implies 
however expressly this certain conclusion; that 
the ancient system of Romish Catholicism was di- 
rectly hostile to the progress of knowledge; and 
that the event which contributed to deliver the 
human mind from such an adversary ought to be 
regarded as one of the happiest epochs in the in- 



Reformation of Luther. 285 

» 

tellectual improvement of modern times. The 
contrary system, of liberality, of inquiry, and free 
criticism, established by the Reformation, became 
the asgis under which the Galileos of succeeding 
times, the Keplers, the Newtons, the Leibnitzes, 
the Hevels, and finally the Laplaces, have been 
enabled with confidence to disclose their high 
speculations. 

But of this amazing space over which the human 
mind has travelled in the course of three centuries, 
how shall we be able to discern the steps which 
the Reformation alone has caused it to make? 
How many circumstances have concurred to favour 
the intellectual progress of that period ? The Re- 
formation itself, as we have before remarked, was 
only a primary effect of the revival of knowledge. 
That effect, however, became, of course, a cause 
in its turn, and had an influence on the events 
which succeeded. But to what extent, rfnd in 
what manner ? Has the Reformation accelerated, 
or has it retarded the progress of the human 
mind ? Has it been favourable to it ; or has it 
been hurtful ? Celebrated writers have with equal 
ardour supported both opinions. Must we impli- 
citly adopt one of the two ? Is it better to pursue 
a middle course? The author of the present essay 
proceeds to announce freely his sentiments on 
the subject, and to adduce the reasons which 
he thinks support them. 



286 Spirit and Influence of the 

It was impossible that the Reformation, the 
child of reviving- knowledge, should, not be fa- 
vourable to its progress. But this offspring of 
knowledge was conceived in an age still ignorant, 
in a world as yet in a state of chaos, where a mul- 
titude of opposite principles fermented. Aban- 
doned to all the passions which then prevailed, 
and receiving often bad external forms by the ig- 
norance or superstition even of those who contri- 
buted to its establishment, the Reformation, the 
original tendency of which was purely good, has 
become the source of many evils. The good 
which it ought to have produced was the effect of 
the spirit which formed its essence: the evils of 
which it was the occasion depended for the most 
part on the incidents with which it was accompa- 
nied, on the opposition raised to it, and the ex- 
traneous motives with which it was associated. We 
ought here then to consider two things; which 
can never with propriety be confounded together: 
the one, the moral impulse primarily given by the 
Reformation ; the other, the convulsion which re- 
sulted from it, when with that primary impulse 
were joined so many others, by which it was mo- 
dified and perverted. In short we must, in the 
Reformation, consider both the spirit and the. 
event, the intention and the effect. 



Reformation of Luther, 287 



SECTION I. 

Effects of the moral Impulse communicated by the 
Reformation, 

JjY what has been already advanced in several 
parts of this discourse, concerning the nature of 
the Reformation; the direction of its moral im- 
pulse, and the objects to which it extended, may 
be easily conjectured. The intention of the re- 
formers was, in the beginning, to emancipate 
themselves from the despotism and infallibility of 
the Pope ; to depend upon the sacred books alone 
for the foundation of their faith; and to overturn 
the scholastic doctrine which had become the 
soul, as it were, of the Romish theology, and a 
powerful support of the hierarchy. Hence it 
follows, that the Reformation, from its very 
nature, must have affected the liberty of thinking, 
so precious to man, and the basis of his political 
liberty; his manner of viewing religion and estab- 
lishing its proofs, and his manner of interpreting 
Scripture; and in the third place it must have af- 
fected philosophy, and all the ramifications of the 
tree of knowledge, which proceed from any of 
those three main branches. Order and perspi- 
cuity require that we should treat of each of these 
articles separately. 



£88 Spirit and hifluence of the 

In regard to the liberty of thought. 
I should consider myself as violating that re- 
spect which I owe to my judges, and to the en- 
lightened part of the public, if I allowed myself 
to run into a lono* enumeration of the advantages 
which the human mind has derived from the un- 
limited power of exercising freely its faculties. 
Let us only reflect upon the immense apparatus 
of censures, of prohibitions, and of inquisitors 
which the Romish church employed to keep -all 
eyes shut, at a time when every new opinion was a 
heresy, that is, a crime worthy of the direst 
punishment, and against which all the rigour of 
the secular arm was required, and we shall shudder 
at the danger to which the human species was ex- 
posed before the sixteenth century. Had not the 
mind, by the happiest and most extraordinary 
concurrence of favourable circumstances obtained, 
in rapid succession, new aids, and fresh fuel to its 
activity, what would have become of that feeble 
spark of light, which began to shine, under the 
system of extinguishment and obscuration adopted 
by the court of Rome? Had not the Greeks of 
/Constantinople emigrated toward the west; had 
not Copernicus in the heavens, and Columbus on 
the earth, extended the boundaries of knowledge; 
and the art of printing and the reformation of 
religion proceeded from the bosom of laborious 
Germany ; had no£ the colossal power which bound 



Reformation of Luther* 28Q t 

the consciences and oppressed the minds of men 
received so many shocks in rapid succession, for 
how many ages might not the culture of the hu- 
man mind, and the improvement of the political 
condition of man have been retarded ! Let us put 
the question to the southern parts of Germany, to 
the people of the Two Sicilies, of Spain, and of 
Ireland. Let any impartial observer, after having 
fairly ascertained the state of knowledge in those 
countries, make himself acquainted with the de- 
gree in which it exists in Switzerland, in the two 
Saxonies, in Holland, and England; the contrast 
cannot escape him. It is not asserted that in the 
Catholic countries above-named superior men, 
persons on a level with the most elevated of their 
age, are not to be found; but they are rare; and 
only the masses of the people in different countries 
ought to be compared. True it is that in the close 
connection in which the different nations of our 
little Europe live together, it is impossible that the 
knowledge existing in one country should not in 
some degree penetrate into the others. The wall 
of separation cannot be so raised, cannot be so 
vigilantly guarded, as to prevent individuals in all 
from communicating with one another. But un- 
doubtedly on the part of the Catholics no precau- 
tions have hitherto been neglected to ward off, as 
a dangerous disease, the liberal ideas of Pro- 
testantism from their boundaries. It was at Rome 

U 



2Q0 Spirit and Influence of the 

that the censorship of books was first invented, 
and the example was religiously followed by the 
governments devoted to Rome. Leo X, that 
vaunted protector of the arts, issued, in 1515, 
severe restrictions against printing and publishing 
any books translated from the Greek, Hebrew, or 
Arabic. At the same period that, five years 
afterwards, he fulminated against the Reformation 
that famous bull which begun; " Exsurge, Dens, 
judica causam tuam" (Arise, O God, judge thy 
own cause,) in which Luther and his adherents 
were attacked with the most terrible anathemas, 
and in which all men were prohibited indiscrimi- 
nately from reading any of their books whatsoever, 
and on what subject soever they might treat; at 
that very moment, I say, this pontiff did not blush 
to publish, in the name of Jesus Christ, a bull 
in favour of the profane poems of Ariosto, threaten- 
ing with excommunication those who should find 
fault with them, or obstruct their sale. What 
was to be expected from such a spirit as this, 
from such an abuse of things, violently converted 
into things sacred, nay thrust into the 'place of 
the very oracles of heaven itself? France, the 
most enlightened of all the Catholic countries, 
more enlightened than several Protestant coun- 
tries, and in which popery never reigned with un- 
limited sway, in spite of all its efforts to confirm 
its hold and to introduce the inquisition — France 



Reformation of Luther. 39! 

itself, in which even a species of half reform ex- 
isted^ under the title of Gallican liberties, was 
not entirely exempted from that system of extin- 
guishment. 3 ^ In Spain, in Italy, and Austria the 
prohibitions and censures went much farther; and 
in those countries still impose many shackles on 
the liberty of writing and thinking. Several of 
the governments in the south of Germany renew 
from time to time those salutary regulations' 
against the reading of books written by heretics, 
or bold speculators, (les esprits forts.) The works 
of Rousseau, of Voltaire, of Helvetius, of Diderot, 
&c. are kept under lock and key in the public li- 

* The history of all the books, juridically condemned, would 
form a most interesting performance, if it were philosophically 
written. We should behold many destroyed for having ven- 
tured to speak what every good man ought to be proud of hav- 
ing tljotight. Let us quote a single example cut of a thousand, 
towards the end of the seventeenth century, the Missionary 
Lecomte published his New memoirs on the present state of China; 
in which he was ingenuous enough to say, " That the Chinese 
had worshipped the true God for two thousand years 3 that they 
were the first nation who had sacrificed to their Creator, and 
taught a pure morality." At the present day we cannot form 
a conception of the uproar which this simple narration of an 
historical fact excited. The Abbe Boileau, the brother of the 
celebrated satyrist, thundered in the Sorbonne, and denounced 
the good missionary as a blasphemer. The Sorbonne in 1700 
condemned the book, and the parliament also had the weakness 
to make it be torn to pieces and burnt by the hands of the 
common executioner, Author. 

u 2 



/ Spirit and Influence of the 

braries ; ■ and it is expressly ordered " that they 
shall not be communicated to any person but those 
who engage to refute them." These are the words 
themselves of a very recent edict. A professor of 
an university of Bavaria was deprived of his em- 
ployment a few years before the revolution in 
France for having required that a copy of Bayle's 
critical dictionary should be placed in the common 
library. These facts, and an immense number of 
others, which are repeated every day, characterise 
the spirit of Catholicism in regard to the propa- 
gation of knowledge, and the liberality of instruc 
tion. The maxim of the middle ages is yet pre- 
served in those countries in all the vigour in which 
it is possible to preserve it in the present times ; 
(i to retain the minds of men on certain subjects 
in complete stupidity; to keep them as much as 
possible empty, that they may be afterwards filled 
with any thing which is found agreeable, and that 
superstition may find a convenient reception." Has 
any pope as yet retracted the bull. In ccena Do- 
mini, by which were excommunicated all persons 
who should read any books composed by heretics? 
Father Paul, mentioning the first index of pro- 
hibited books which was published at Rome in 
IodQ, says among other things: " That under 
pretext of religion the pope in this consigned to 
excommunication the authors of works in which 
only the authority of princes and magistrates wae 



Reformation of Luther. 2Q3 

supported against the usurpation of ecclesiastics. — 
Besides this, the Romish inquisitors prohibited in 
the mass ail books printed- by sixty-two printers 
which they denounced without any regard to their 
contents; adding further, a general prohibition to 
read any book issuing from the press of a printer 
who but once in his life had printed any thing 
produced by an heretic. By this means, says the 
historian, nothing was left to read. Never was a 
better secret found to benumb and corrupt men by 
religion." (History of the Council of Trent, B. 6.) 
The Reformation broke all those shackles im- 
posed upon the human mind, and overthrew all 
the barriers erected against the free communication 
of thought. Within its boundaries nothing re- 
mained forbidden except productions offensive to 
modesty and public morals. By recalling the me- 
mory of those shackles and barriers, by consider- 
ing the long continuance of barbarity which they 
might still have maintained upon the earth, have 
we not sufficiently proved how much the Re- 
formation has contributed to the progress and to 
the diffusion of knowledge? As soon, indeed, as 
by its means the path was opened, men proceeded 
boldly and publicly to discuss the best interests of 
human kind, and to speak like men of things per- 
taining unto men.^ 

* If an ^doubt can be entertained by any person about the 
effects her ^scribed to the Reformation, it must arise from the 



Spirit and I » of th-j 

The church of Rome said; u Su : : hout 

examination, to authority" The Protestant church 

apprehens: aces then exited in ihe state 

of society which would have produced the same effects, whe- 
ther such 2 Reformation as that of Luther had taken place or 
not. The Ref itself no : :: of such 

inces. And if the 5 e produced the Reformation, why 
ay not be capable of producing the other 

things, tiricbaie yh&y. rrnsidered as effects of the Reforms.. 
In con: :-::. -affairs in any given pe- 

attract cor attention may be.di- 
3 into two classes. The firsf are these which : nstitote the 
:y of things, which determine their course e 

I , or back ward on the other j those cir- 

cams ::on, and the degree 

of velocity. Hie seconc stances which every 

a ther retarded, 

- le regular : tats 11ms in 

general tendency of 

uneotj but 

- .""■'." :anc§ 

two such od Caesar. 

Hie tendency again of the monarchical government under the 

■ . . ■ ■ s [timate wc 

vas retarded by mperors as Trajan. The 
tuul eedom in . s very great in the 
...'..-- - [es the First, but that tendency was still :.:. 
strengthened by snch men as H In like 
I he general tendency of things at the time of the Re- 
formation was tov. bot] :. xight and action, but 

the Reformation was a circurus:r.::.T which in a most extraor- 
ry manner = ccelera:ed that ;r:r:e5s, Ana the errecif whici) 
M. Yillers -fcrices to the Re( 1 be d;es pol : 



Reformation of Luther. 2Q5 

said, " Examine, and submit only to thy own 
conviction." — The one commanded men to believe 
blindly, the other taught them, with the apostle,* 
" to reject the bad, and choose only that which 
is good." 

" Protestantism," says an excellent author, " is 
the repulsive power with which reason is endowed 

never have taken place, except in consequence of the Reforma- 
tion, but that they were produced much sooner by the Re- 
formation than otherwise there is any reason to suppose they 
would have been. Not only would the old barriers, almost in- 
surmountable, which the church had raised to oppose know- 
ledge have remained, but new ones would have been raised 
with the utmost industry, as the danger grew more visible ; and 
had not an immediate victory been gained over the church, by 
which a great portion of Europe was delivered from her yoke, 
she would have punished the rebellion by strengthening to the 
utmost of her power the chains of slavery. So favourable also 
were many circumstances, in such an event, to the confirma- 
tion of her power, that any new attempt to break it might 
have been removed to a very great distance. Spain is a practi- 
cal and melancholy proof of this. In what a state of slavery, 
ignorance, and barbarity does that country yet remain ? It was 
at the time of the Reformation one of the most free and en- 
lightened in Europe. The confirmation of the Catholic religion 
-is possibly the entire cause of its degradation and wretchedness. 
Whoever reflects upon this single example, as well as upon the 
state of human nature, in Austria, in Naples, in Portugal, and 
other countries purely Catholic, will not complain that effects 
too great have been ascribed by Villers to the Reformation. 

* " Quench not the spirit.*** But examine all things, and 
hold fast that which is good." 2 Thess. v. 19, 21. Author, 



2g6 Spirit and Influence of the 

to remove and throw off whatever would occupy 
its place." * I will refrain myself from adding any 
thing more, and from falling into vague declama- 
tion on this subject. It "is sufficient to reflect a 
single moment on the immense difference between 
those two principles adopted respectively by the 
two parties as the basis of moral culture; on the 
one side believe! on the other examine! Every 
thing it is evident must of necessity assume a dif- 
ferent aspect under the supreme authority of those 
two opposite principles. The principle of exami- 
nation calls forth light, of which it is the friend, 
as that of blind submission is the promoter of 
darkness. And who can calculate the immense 
extent of the influence of a fundamental princi- 
ple, admitted as the basis of religious, and by 
consequence of moral instruction, in a nation? 
The man who is free in the inmost sanctuary of 
his soul looks freely and boldly around him. He 
becomes enterprising, active, and disposed for 
every thing that is great and useful. He who is 
a slave in his conscience, in the very centre of his 
being, is, without knowing that he is so, a slave 
in his whole conduct. He is by birth a slave> 
from the stupefaction and apathy which unnerve 
his faculties. 

.* M. Greiling, in a valuable German work, entitled Hiero~ 
polls, or the mutual relations of the church and state. Author 



Reformation of Luther, 2QJ 

In regard to the Study of Religion ; ancient Lan- 
guages, Exegesis, Archeology, History. 

Agreeably to the terms of the question proposed 
by the National Institute, we cannot here consider 
the study of religion but in so far as the nature of 
that study has had an immediate influence upon 
literature and the sciences. We shall not there- 
fore attend to the speculative tenets of the dif- 
ferent reformed churches, their mode of religious 
instruction, which relates to the doctrine termed 
catechetical, or to the doctrine of the sacred 
orators, called homiletical,* &c.* ## subjects 
which at another time, and in other circumstances, 
might afford matter for a very extensive and inte- 
resting work. 

When the Romish church reigned alone in the 
West, the absence of all contradiction produced 
at the same time that of all examination, and of 
all study of theological antiquities. The church, 
as we have already seen, even presented an active 
opposition to all inquiry respecting the subject. 
It prevented to the utmost of its power the acqui- 
sition of a knowledge of the oriental languages, 
and the reading of the Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testament. The system which it owned 

* Those are terras in use chiefly among the German divines. 
Catechetical refers to the abstract principles of christian faith 3 
and homUeiical is applied more particularly to the practical. 



-205 Spirit and Influence of the 

rested upon passages and expressions of that book, 
which it interpreted according to its own purposes; 
and upon traditions, passages in the writings of 
the fathers, decisions of councils, pontifical bulls, 
decretals, charters, and other historical monu- 
ments, real, or supposed. To attack this system 
with efncacy, and in all its parts, as well as to 
establish their own on a solid foundation, the Pro- 
testant theologians were obliged to employ the 
profoundest criticism, as well in regard to the 
original languages in which the sacred books were 
written, as in regard to the different branches of 
sacred and ecclesiastical history. Particularly it 
behoved them to shew clearly that such or such a 
passage was either mutilated or misinterpreted ; 
that such or such an expression had, in the age in 
which it was written, a very different meaning 
from that now ascribed to it; and so in other 
ihings. From these causes, oriental knowledge, 
the study of sacred antiquities, (which are inti- 
mately connected with the profane antiquities of 
the East,) and that of the languages which are 
the necessary key to this study, became indispen- 
sable. It was necessary to arrive at an exact 
knowledge of the places, the manners, the events, 
the ideas, the -whole intellectual affairs, and the 
political and private condition of the different 
nations during the ages in which such and such a 
prophet or evangelist existed. We have already 



Reformation of Luther. 209 

seen that the great leaders in the Reformation 
were precisely men devoted to this species of study, 
which is peculiarly suited to the assiduity and cool 
temperament of the north. What occasion have 
I to call here to the recollection of my judges the 
immense services rendered by the Protestants of 
different denominations, from Luther, Melancthon, 
Camerarius, Zwinglius, Calvin, the Buxtorfs, &c. 
**.* to Michaelis, Eickhorn, Schultens, Lowth, 
Kennicott, and others, to literature and oriental 
antiquities? The study of the Greek language, 
so important on account of the New Testament, 
the Fathers, and the Septuagint version, was 
prosecuted at least with equal ardour. The know^ 
ledge of the requisite productions of antiquity in 
that language gave to it new attractions. Shall I 
name here the celebrated Grecian scholars whom 
Protestant Europe has produced ? Shall I display 
the catalogue of their productions? I should re- 
quire for that purpose a space, containing titles 
merely, larger than that of this whole dissertation. 
Who, that has even stept upon classical ground, 
but is acquainted with the names of Ernesti, 
Heyne, Heeren, Schutz, Wolf, Hemsterhusius, 
Bentley, Voss, Spanheim ? Who knows not that 
in Protestant countries the knowledge of the 
Greek language is more common perhaps than 
that of the Latin in the greater part of Catholic 
countries ? In England, in Holland, in Germany, 



300 Spirit and Influence of the 

every man who has received a good education is 
as well acquainted with the language of Homer 
as with that of Virgil. # With regard to church- 
men that knowledge is indispensable; and it is not 
uncommon to find them conversant with the 
language and antiquities of the East. Thus was 
the impulse given by the necessity in which at first 
the Protestants found themselves of acting offen- 
sively against the Romish church. They were the 
aggressors ; and their existence depended on their 
combating victoriously the Catholic theologians. 
Thus were the attention and efforts of men di- 
rected towards historical criticism and philology. 
Public education was modeled accordingly; and 
that study came into esteem and celebrity in each 
country in proportion to the splendour of the 
progress made by those who cultivated it.+ 

* No doubt the Greek language is studied with considerable 
care in those countries. But it is going rather too far to say it 
is studied with the same care as the Latin. Many persons, 
complete Greek scholars, are to be found in them ; and many 
more who have a slight acquaintance with the language. But 
there are ten persons in them all who have a tolerable know- 
ledge of Latin, and know little or nothing about Greek. 

t The great attention which, in Protestant countries, is paid 
to the study of the ancient languages, is undoubtedly one of 
the causes of the facility with which people there learn also the 
modern and living languages. A Protestant, of the cultivated 
class, understands in general two or three European languages^ 
besides his own. Author. 



Reformation of Lather. 301 

In the mean time it was impossible that the 
study of the languages, and of sacred and eccle- 
siastical antiquities, should be confined to the 
Protestants. It was necessary for the Catholics ■ 
to take measures for their own defence, and to 
prove against their learned adversaries, that the 
passages and expressions accused by them of being 
falsely interpreted, were on the contrary justly 
and truly interpreted. Besides when once the 
impulse was given in the European republic of 
letters, no one could remain behind, and submit 
to the shame of appearing less instructed than the 
opposite party.* A great number of Catholics, 
as well as Protestants, distinguished themselves in 
criticism and philology. But at* the same time it 
must be acknowledged that this study was never 
so much encouraged or so universal among the 
nations attached to Rome, as among those which 
separated from it. In the one place men gave 
themselves up to those sciences with the ardour 
and vehemence of enthusiasm ; they revered them 
as the protectors of the public weal, as the sources 

* Even the Jews were awaked by that general activity ; and \ 
produced some grammars and lexicons for the study ofj the 
Hebrew. They have continued in general more instructed and 
enlightened in Protestant countries than elsewhere. It was in 
Holland that Spinosa lived, as at Berlin Moses Mendelsohn, 
where at present some men of letters and philosophers of the 
first rank are found among the Jews. Author, 



302 Spirit and Influence of the 

of religious and political independence. In the 
other they were only handled as dangerous wea- 
pons from which the first blow had been received; 
they were cultivated only from compulsion; and 
by the necessity of combating on equal terms. 
Thus the islanders of Great Britain are naturally 
sailors; which does not prevent any inhabitant of 
any inland province on the continent from be- 
coming a very great seaman. 

In this manner it was that Protestantism, by its 
new method of studying religion, of viewing and 
establishing its proofs, fomented in Europe, and 
particularly within its own boundaries, a more pro- 
found study of antiquity, sacred, ecclesiastical, 
and profane. Even in our own days we behold 
sufficient proofs of this in the erudition of the 
learned men of the north, who, though more re- 
moved than the other Europeans from the countries 
in which renowned antiquity flourished, appear 
nevertheless to secure the sovereignty of it by 
their learned excursions. The Italians walk over 
Herculaneum, and dig up its wonders; they mul- 
tiply museums and collections. It is for Winkel- 
mann they amass those materials. By their as- 
sistance he discovers the secret of the art, he 
writes the annals of it, and becomes its legislator. 
From this profound study by the Protestant di- 
vines of Oriental and Grecian archeology, applied 
to the interpretation of the sacred books, the 



Reformation of Luther. 303 

science called exegesis* or the critical examination 
of the text of scripture, which forms an important 
branch of their studies, derived a perfection and, 
richness, which before it was far from possessing". 
This study consists of several parts. That which 
is directed particularly to the languages, to anti- 
quities, to the knowledge of times, places, and 
authors, is called hermeneutical. The English, 
in a peculiar manner; the Swiss, the Dutch, and 
Germans, have prosecuted this science to a great 
extent. There it is we behold the different frag- 
ments, books, poems or treatises which compose 
the Bible, (considered as works written in a certain 
age and nation,) interpreted, commented upon, 
and restored to their true meaning. Therevthe 
Pentateuch is explained with the same care and the 
same profundity, as are, in profane archeology, 
the poems of Hesiod or Homer. The commen- 
taries written on the book of Job, on those of 
Isaiah and Jeremiah, on the Psalms, on the Song 
of Songs, &c. throw entirely a new light on those 
precious remains of eastern antiquity, on their 
authors, and on the spirit of the age in which 

* This is another theological term employed by the divines 
in Germany, and but little known to the people of this country. 
The acceptation in which it is received is sufficiently explained 
by the context. Hermeneutical, which immediately follows, is 
another of the same land, and its meaning is here equally well 
defined, 



304 Spirit and Influence of the 

they were written. The mythologies of the na- 
tion, and of those in its neighbourhood, are il- 
lustrated and explained. The hermeneutical in- 
quiries into the books of the New Testament are 
not less important. The Gospels, and the Acts 
and Epistles of the Apostles, even the Apocalypse, 
committed to criticism, as pieces of history, give 
occasion to researches and dissertations, which 
cannot be read without the highest interest. By 
following, in this manner, the sacred historians 
and bards* through Egyptian, Arabian, Syrian, 

* There is something in the manner in which the sacred 
books are here talked of which is offensive. They are intro- 
duced as mere scraps of the literature of distant ages and 
countries. No doubt the meaning of those books is to be 
sought out by the very same means exactly as the meaning of 
any portion of the literary remains of antiquity; and these 
means are here very justly described by Villers. But we know 
that those books were not originally produced, nor have they 
been preserved like ordinary books, or for ordinary purp 
They compose the extraordinary code of laws communicated by 
a benevolent divinity to man, which, though given at different 
times, and in various forms constitute a perfect whole, the 
value of which M. Villers does not call in question. Whether 
he thought it proper to talk of the sacred books in a litei 
point oi view merely, as he was confined to speak of the Re- 
formation in regard solely to its literary and political effects, I 
know not. I am unwilling to ascribe infidelity to any man who 
does net give certain indications of his being an unbeliever. 
But I could not allow expressions concerning the Bible, which 
appeared to be not sufficiently respectful, to pass without notice, 



Reformation of Luther. 305 

Chaldean, Samaritan, Persian, Grecian, and Ro- 
man antiquity ; by analysing their language, their 
manners, their spirit, and the mental improve- 
ment and ideas of their cotemporaries, we find 
cultivated a large space in the field of antiquity, 
and light thrown upon the archives of the human 
race** 

All the Protestant universities have chairs in 
which all the branches of exegesis, and the other 
sciences connected with it are taught generally 
with distinction. A course of lectures, intended, 
for example, to interpret the Proverbs, or the 
Epistle to the Galatians, proves frequently an ac- 
complished exposition of the political, literary, 
and religious history of the period in which those 
writings were produced ; a performance in which 
we are often obliged to admire the erudition, the 
criticism, and the philosophy, united in its com- 

* See upon this subject a discourse delivered at the opening 
of the Protestant academy of Strasburg, on the 15th Brumaire, 
year 12, by M. HafTner, and entitled, " On the assistance which 
the study of the languages, of history, of philosophy, and lite' 
rature, affords to theology." This excellent piece has been too 
little read. The Journals have not spoken of it sufficiently. 
Indeed we may say of it what Condorcet said of a very good 
discourse concerning the Protestants which appeared in his 
time : * c It would have made a great deal of noise if the people 
of Paris occupied themselves seriously with any other thing than 
their pleasures, intrigues, and money." (Tom. 10 CEuvres, p. 
289.) Author, 

X 



306 Spirit and Influence of the 

position. The Protestant states, as well as Pro- 
testant individuals, omit nothing to carry to the 
highest degree of possible perfection this science 
of the interpretation of the sacred books. The 
libraries of the ancient monasteries of the East 
and of the West were long incessantly visited by 
the indefatigable philologists of England, Ger- 
many and Denmark. Manuscripts, and monu- 
ments of every description, were sought for, de- 
ciphered, and compared; obscure passages were 
illustrated ; light sprung from the center of those 
old dusty storehouses ; it was for the skilful and 
practised eye of the Protestant that the indolent 
cenobite had preserved those treasures. How 
many rich and invaluable discoveries have the 
enemies of Rome made in those magazines of 
science which undoubtedly the honour belongs to 
the Catholic monks of having kept, but of which 
the greater part of them were incapable of making 
any use, and which the most learned among them 
too often only disfigured in their writings. It 
suits not with the plan of this limited essay to 
enter into the extensive details which this subject 
would require, to do it perfect justice, and to pro- 
duce all the documents which would be necessary. 
From the zealous Pococke to the present time, 
how many persons have been sent, for the same 
purpose, by Protestant princes, even by private 
societies, to explore the Levant, Asia, Palestine 



Reformation of Luther. 30? 

the Thebaid, Ethiopia ? I will mention only the 
expedition on which, with, others, Niebuhr the 
Dane, well known by his travels in Arabia and 
Egypt, was sent, and which was an expedition 
fitted out with this intention. All those who are 
acquainted with the narrative of Neibuhr know 
too the interesting series of questions which the 
celebrated Michaelis of Gottingen drew up for 
him before his departure, and which such a man 
as he alone could conceive. 

I cannot forbear, before concluding the article 
which relates to this beautiful and profound science 
of exegesis among the Protestants, remarking by 
the way how much the whole system of studies 
relating to Protestant theology differs from that 
of Catholic theology. They are two worlds in 
opposite hemispheres, which have nothing common 
except the name. But that unhappily is sufficient 
to deceive all those who never go farther than the 
name.* The Catholic theology rests on the in- 

* I read a few years ago, in a French journal, intitled The 
Propagator, a severe reprimand to those ill-advised people who 
praised German literature. In the article I'keology, among 
others, the Journalist ironically remarked that at the last 
Leipsic fair there had appeared a hundred, ' and so many more 
works on that subject. " Thanks to heaven," added he, <f we 
no longer behold such nonsense among us!" Those who know 
what is treated of in books of Protestant theology, even those 
who know a little of the literary history of France during 
the last two centuries under Nicoli, Fenelon, Fleury, &c„ 

X 2 



30& Spirit and Influence of the 

flexible authority of the decisions of the church, 
and therefore debars the man who studies it from all 
free exercise of his reason. It has preserved the 
jargon, and all the barbarous appendages of the 
scholastic philosophy. We perceive in it the 
work of darkness of the monks of the tenth cen- 
tury. In short the happiest thing which can befal 
him who has unfortunately learnt it, is speedily to 
forget it. The Protestant theology, on the con- 
trary, rests on a system of examination, on the 
unlimited use of reason. The most liberal exe- 
gesis opens for it the knowledge of sacred anti- 
quity ; criticism, that of the history of the church ; 
it regards the doctrinal part, reduced to purity and 
simplicity, as only the body of religion, the positive 
form which it requires; and it is supported by 
philosophy in the examination of the laws of 
nature, of morality, and of the relations of man to 
the Divine Being. Whoever wishes to be in- 
structed in history, in classical literature, and phi- 
losophy, can chuse nothing better than a course 
of Protestant theology.* Clergymen reared in 

can appreciate nonsense of this sort in the mouth of a Jour- 
nalist. Author. 

* It is undoubtedly true that the education given to clergy- 
men in Protestant countries is far superior to that given to any 
other class of men, the course of instruction is far more com- 
plete, better fitted both to cultivate and strengthen the faculties, 
and to store the mind with useful knowledge. So perfect a 



Reformation of Luther. 30Q 

this manner, proceeding from the universities, 
go to fill the place of pastors and teachers in 
little villages, and in the country. It very often 
happens that there they establish excellent schools, 
and spread around them the light which they have 
received from their masters. The class of our 
village curates and vicars has in general been 
always very respectable and exemplary; yet, it 
must be acknowledged, and all those who have 
been enabled to observe it will acknowledge with- 
out difficulty, that this class is not less exemplary 
among the Protestants, and among them it is 
much more, and much better instructed.* 

Another advantage which the new mode of 
studying religion, introduced by the Reformation, 

preparatory discipline is not thought necessary for any other set 
of men. By the growing vices of the principal establishments 
for education, in other countries as well as in this, many of the 
effects which might result from this in the present state of the 
world are prevented. 

* In several Protestant countries they require of the minis- 
ters who are to be placed in the country to have gone through a 
course of agriculture and rural economy, and to possess also 
some knowledge of medicine and pharmacy. The young ec- 
clesiastics at Geneva underwent an examination on their study 
of the ancient languages, and of the sciences, before commen- 
cing their theological studies j and after the four years which 
these continued, they underwent a new examination on the 
same subjects, to know that they had forgotten nothing of this 
sort of knowledge. This exceller ^custom has been continued 
at Geneva since the re-establishm ( a t ofstudy. Author. 



3 ] Spirit and Influence of the 

procured to the sciences, is, that it contributed so 
powerfully to draw the history of the church, and 
in a great measure that of the state also, out of 
the hands of the monks, the common chroniclers 
of the ages preceding the sixteenth. Those soli- 
tary personages, very little acquainted with the 
affairs of the world, seldom impartial, praised so- 
vereigns only in proportion as they had endowed 
their convents, and done good to the church. 
They mixed abundance of fables, of superstition, 
and of maledictions against heretics, in those un- 
seemly annals. Where was the muse of history 
with priests like these ? Here and there they have 
been of some service. But how much sooner 
would human reason, which they held captive for 
ages, have been restored to itself, if it had been 
allowed to act with freedom! At last Reineccius, 
Melanchton, Carion, Sleidan, De Thou, Puffen- 
dorf, restored to history its true form. It has, 
since their time, been united to criticism and philo- 
sophy, from which it should never have heen dis - 
joined. Bayle, and many other Protestant histo- 
rians, wrote with a freedom, a discernment, and 
a spirit, which many Catholics afterwards imitated. 
The history of the church, as well that of doc- 
trines, as that of the external events which con- 
nect the church as a society with the other bodies 
politic, acquired a coherence, a truth, an impar- 
tiality, and a discrimination, which have formed 



Reformation of Luther. 311 

it into one of the most important branches of 
human knowledge. Frenchmen are acquainted 
with the essays of the two Basnages, of Lenfant, 
Beausobre, Le Bret, and others ; the works too, 
now become almost ancient, of the centuriators 
of Magdeburg, the fathers of real ecclesiastical 
history, are well known, as are those of Secken- 
dorf, of Mosheim in Latin, and those of Walch 
and Cramer in German. They have had succes- 
sors worthy of them in the latter historians of 
that country, the only one in which that history, 
so full of great lessons, and of great ideas, has 
been properly cultivated by men profoundly in- 
structed, such as Semler, Schroek, Plank, Spittler, 
Henke, Munter, Thym ; and relating to the his- 
tory of the Gospel itself, and its critical exposition 
by M. Paulus, the Michaelis of the New Testa- 
ment. Let us, in conclusion, add, that the his- 
tory of literature, that species of history the ob- 
ject of which is to exhibit the progress of the 
revolutions of the human mind in the sciences 
and arts, was also indebted for a new species of 
life to the same impulse. It was at Kiel that the 
illustrious MorhofF gave, in his book entitled 
Polyhistor, the first specimen of a similar per- 
formance. 



312 Spirit and Influence of the 

In regard to Philosophy, and to the moral and 
political Sciences. 

A revolution which began by a Reformation in 
religious opinions could not fail to awaken the 
philosophical spirit so intimately connected in man 
with speculations about invisible things, with 
ideas of the divine nature, of a future life for him 
in another world, and of his moral duties in this. 
It has been already sufficiently shewn what an im- 
perfect philosophy reigned in the schools before 
the Reformation, and in what manner an extra- 
vagant and puerile system of dialectics had blended 
itself with the system of Romish theology which 
was supported by its aid. To uphold that system 
was indeed the only object of philosophy during 
many ages. The theologians, in general monks, 
were the only philosophers. Their subtle, and 
sometimes ridiculous argumentations, tended only 
to the maintenance of orthodoxy in opposition to 
innovators and heretics. Never did it enter into 
their minds to teach a morality useful to human 
society. They only employed themselves in estab- 
lishing the rights of the Pope and the clergy, 
never those of the people or of individuals. To 
reason conformably to the views of the Romish 
church at that time, it was necessary, as is evi- 
dent, to do it only in a certain manner, and upon 
certain subjects. To reason in a new manner, to 



Reformation of Luther. 313 

extend the reasonings to subjects till then held sa- 
cred and inviolable, was to shake the foundations 
of the edifice. A firm, independent philosophy, 
which pretended to become universal, was some- 
thing monstrous in that state of things. Ac- 
cordingly nothing of that kind, before the Refor- 
mation, exists. A strange mixture of some dis- 
figured propositions of the peripatetic philosophy, 
which was applied in the most extraordinary man- 
ner to matters of faith and controversy, formed 
the whole stock of the scholastic doctrine. 

After the revival of letters, some men of genius, 
with the famous Erasmus at their head, had 
already risen in opposition to this monkish barba- 
rity. But how, remaining as they did in the 
bosom of a church to which the scholastic philo- 
sophy had become an indispensable auxiliary, could 
they labour successfully in demolishing that sup- 
porter. Such an enterprise could only be accom- 
plished by reformers courageous enough to escape 
from that church, and to establish one independent 
of it on the pure principles of the Gospel and of 
reason. In this manner it was that the Reforma- 
tion dethroned the doctrine of the schools. 

Protestants and Catholics having betaken them- 
selves with emulation to the study of Greek, to 
become acquainted with the originals written in 
that language, they read among other things the 
works of Aristotle^ which they drew from eht 



314 Spirit and Influence of the 

dust of libraries. With what surprise did they 
perceive that they contained something very dif- 
ferent from what had been taught for ages under 
the name of that great man ? They found that 
the grotesque pagoda, so revered in the schools 
under the imposing name of Aristotle, in no re- 
spect resembled the philosopher of Stagira. Me- 
lancthon resolved to carry this truth to certainty. 
He explained the true doctrine of Aristotle, and 
declared in its favour, representing it as just in all 
things not superior to human reason ; but at the 
same time stating very positively that it ought to 
be entirely excluded from the domains of theology. 
Men did not confine themselves to the perusal of 
the original books of Aristotle: the discoveries 
which had been made in them inspired the learned 
men of the age with the desire of extending their 
researches to all the remaining monuments of an- 
cient philosophy. The writings of the Pythago- 
reans, those of the two Platonic schools, the old 
and the new Academy, those of the Stoical and 
Epicurean schools, were read, interpreted, and 
the different doctrines contained in them publicly 
taught. Then began a philosophical period, during 
which the passion for truths of a superior order, 
for the discussion of the highest principles of 
logic, of metaphysics, and morality, acquired a 
power which had not been witnessed for many 
ages. The perusal of the precious remains of an- 



Reformation of Luther. 315 

tiquity became again, in regard to philosophy, 
what, in the age of Petrarch, it had been in re- 
gard to poetry. It would be necessary to follow 
all the deviations of the philosophical spirit during 
that period, to display all the different forms 
which it assumed, as well in the successively borr 
rowed and modified systems of the ancients, as in 
those formed by the genius of the moderns, it 
would be necessary to explain what those devia- 
tions have been among so many profound thinkers, 
Agrippa, Bacon, Cherburg, Descartes, Spinosa, 
Gassendi, Pascal, Mallebranche, Locke, Leibnitz, 
Wolf, Bayle, Berkeley, &c. to give a complete 
idea of that period.* But so vast a picture cannot 
be brought within the narrow limits of this per- 
formance. It is sufficient for our purpose to have 
marked the share which the Reformation had in 
this grand movement of the human mind.^ 

* It is to be remarked that philosophy had, at that time its 
martyrs. Bruno was burnt alive at Rome in l66*0, Vanini at 
Toulouse in 1619, Kuhlmann at Moscow in 16S9, and the 
first two Italians and Atheists. Author. 

t It would be very easy to render this essay, which can be 
nothing but a mere sketch, a voluminous history, full of parti- 
culars, and compilations. It would only be necessary, in this 
article, for example, relating to the influence of the Refor- 
mation on philosophical studies, to copy all the interesting 
things which Brucker has advanced on this subject in the fourth 
volume of his history of philosophy j then to levy contributions 
from the learned works of Rexinger and Edzard (" Dissert. 



3 1 6 , Spirit and Influence of the 

In the mean time it ought to be observed that 
this movement could have free and unlimited 
course only in Protestant countries. It was 
alien and contradictory to the system established 
in the Catholic states. Among these, philosophy 
is to be regarded as a disturber of the public 
peace, or, if you will, of the public apathy; 
which in the opinion of many people comes nearly 
to the same thing. In Austria, in Italy, and 
Spain, this philosophical impulse was soon spent; 
and the usual lethargy quickly recovered the 
ascendant. Even in France, a country which 
ought by no means, as we have already demon- 
strated, to be ranked in the same class with the 
other Catholic countries, the philosophical spirit 
was soon extinguished after the death of Descartes, 
who indeed, as is well known, found the greatest 
number of his partisans in Holland. The interest 
excited by philosophical truths and systems among 
the English, the Swedes, and the northern Ger- 
mans, on the other hand, far from losing any of 
its force, appeared to go on invariably increasing. 
London, Halle, Geneva, became the schools from 
which Frenchmen drew their information. Locke 

quantum reformatio Lutheri Logicse profuerit,") of Lehman 
(De utilitate quam morali disciplinae reformatio Lutheri attulit,) 
of Seelen (de Incrementis quae studium politicum e reforma- 
tion Lutheri cepit,) and many other performances of the 
•same sort. Author. 



Reformation of Luther. 3 1 f 

and Hume, Wolf and Bonnet, became our masters. 
The modest majority of the very limited number 
of thinking men in our nation attached themselves 
sometimes to one, sometimes to another of those 
great philosophers, and more especially to the 
first of them,* Their works, the produce of a 
Protestant soil, became our classical and funda- 
mental books in philosophy. 

While again the philosophical spirit has for a 
course of years appeared dead in England ^ and 

* This assertion respecting the very small number of thinking 
men, comparatively speaking, who have appeared in France, is 
very contrary to the vain glorious prepossessions of Frenchmen 
themselves, but is a very remarkable truth. These vain glorious 
representations, respecting both their own knowledge and re- 
finement, have had a wonderful effect in deceiving the rest of 
Europe into a great admiration of France. This opinion of 
Villers, distinctly expressed, even in France itself, respecting 
its inferiority in science to many other countries in Europe, will 
lead many persons in the different countries to recognise the 
very obvious truth. And those who desire illustrations of the 
real want of civilization and refinement in the habitual manners 
of Frenchmen, may consult Holcroft's travels, who asserts that 
even in this respect they are a century or two behind the 
English. 

f That the philosophical spirit has been less alive during late 
than former years in England, is an assertion which seems to be 
owing to an unaccountable degree of ignorance in an author of 
so much accuracy and knowledge. The latest English philo- 
sophers with whom he appears to be acquainted are Locke and 
Hume. But he might have known that Reid had written since 
their time, and even Degerando, a living French author, would 



318 Spirit and Influence of the 

Holland/ it has revived in Germany, and exhi- 
bited a depth and energy which it has never pos- 
sessed since the happy days of Greece. To the 
immortal Kant it is indebted for this new impulse. 
Kant has established and deduced incontrovertible 
principles and conclusions, which will for ever re- 
main as the cardinal points of thought, as brilliant 
pharoses in the obscurity of metaphysical inqui- 
ries.* The schools, which have descended from 
his, are powerful in his doctrine when they follow 
it out, and enter into the depths of it ; they go 
astray when they depart from it. But, however 
this may be, it is evident to every man who ob- 
serves with attention the intellectual progress of 
nations that the doctrines of the sage of Kcenigs- 

have told him, that to Reid we are indebted for the introduction 
of the true method of philosophising into the science of mind, 
and for some of the noblest discoveries which have been made 
by any one man in any science. Degerando would have alsG 
informed him of the labours of Stuart, Campbell, Beattie, and 
other followers of Reid, and of the assistance which philosophy 
has derived from their efforts. 

* This is the language of an enthusiastic disciple, but alto- 
gether unsupported by reason. The metaphysical philosophy of 
Kant is founded on hypotheses and theories, not induction. It 
is not drawn from experiment and observation; nor will it bear 
an exact and enlightened analysis. It is ingenious, however, 
and supported by subtle reasonings, which produce conviction 
best where they are least understood. It has been adopted with 
astonishing ardour in Germany, and the explanation of its se- 
veral doctrines has given rise to different schools. 



Reformation of Luther* 319 

berg could not on the one side have raised so 
warm an enthusiasm, or found an opposition on 
the other so keen, and well supported' by argu- 
ment, except in a country in which the great 
questions concerning the relations of human 
reason to nature, and to universal reason, habi- 
tually occupy the minds of men; that is to say, 
in a country in which men think freely concerning 
the objects of a pure religion, and in which the 
noblest ideas relating to the high destination of 
man are universally disseminated. Nothing can 
be more pure, more religious, more severe, and 
more stoical, than the moral doctrines of the 
most celebrated schools of Germany, as well those 
of Kant as those of Jacobi. The superficial and 
erroneous principles of Helvetius and his confede- 
rates have never been able to take root in that 
soil. For the influence of the Reformation on 
the study of morality has not been less decisive 
than on the other branches of philosophy. That 
science, which is the same thing with regard to the 
conduct of man that metaphysics are with regard to 
his knowledge, had fallen from the time of the last 
Roman moralists into almost total oblivion. It is 
well known that the fathers of the church, who 
exhausted all the resources of their minds in doc- 
trinal controversies, did little, or indeed nothing 
toward the moral sciences; the schoolmen less; and 
under their long reign true morality disappeared 



320 Spirit and Influence of the 

altogether, giving place to casuistry; a degenerate 
species of morality, in which the duties of man to- 
wards God, and even towards his fellow-creatures, 
were reduced almost entirely to his duties toward 
the church ; in which a multitude of superstitions 
and practical subtleties corresponded but too well 
with the superstitions and subtleties of the theology 
of that dark period. When the Gospel recovered 
its station, and resumed the place of casuistry, 
the pure and divine morality which it teaches re- 
covered its station likewise in the pulpits and the 
writings of the spiritual pastors. The study be- 
sides of the ancient philosophers, in the original, 
necessarily familiarized the minds of men with 
their moral principles. They compared those 
principles with one another, and with the princi- 
ples of the Gospel. The study of morality ac- 
quired by this means a high degree of interest, 
which undoubtedly it never would have obtained, 
if casuistry had remained predominant, and the 
chairs of colleges and pulpits had remained in the 
possession of monks. It has now become among 
the ministers of the Protestant worship the most 
essential, and indeed almost the entire subject of 
their instructions to the people, the inexhaustible 
theme of their discourses. It forms one of the im- 
portant branches of public instruction in the 
universities. It is well known how many excel- 
lent works on this subject have been produced, 
particularly during the last century, by the Pro- 



Reformation of Luther, 321 

fcbstant churches; what spirit of purity, of hu- 
manity, and religion they at once exhibit; as far 
removed from the ascetic fanaticism of the ages 
of ignorance, as from the dry and cyrenaical self- 
ishness of more enlightened ages. 

As to that morality of nations, which, rising 
above the relations of individuals, determines the 
mutual rights and duties of societies and of their 
members 3 those of princes and of citizens, as 
well as those of nation and nation ; that science 
which exhibits the theory of laws, that of the 
law of nature, and that of positive law in civil 
society; it has been already observed, in several 
passages of this discourse, what advancement it 
received from the Reformation. * The great 
questions, which then at last were discussed for 
the first time in modern Europe, and appeared 
before the tribunal of the European public, turned 
the minds of men towards those objects so uni- 
versally interesting. Luther composed his treatise 
on the civil magistrate-, his appeal to the German 
nobility, &c. * # * Melanchton, Zwinglius, John 
Sturm, and other reformers discussed similar sub- 
jects; and reduced them to the capacity even of 
those who were most imperfectly instructed.-^ 

* It was particularly spoken of in the article, Internal situa- 
tion of the Protestant states in general. Author. 

+ It is scarcely necessary to remark that the canon law un- 
derwent a total Reformation in Protestant countries, It was 

Y 



322 Spirit and Influence of the 

Buchanan published his bold and celebrated tract, 
de Jure regni apud Scotos, while Hubert Languet 
on the continent wrote his Vindiciae contra tyran- 
nos, and Etienne de la Boetie, his discourse on 
voluntary slavery. Milton, who wished to defend 
before the world the long parliament of England, 
and the punishment of Charles the First, pro- 
duced several political works which breathed the 
most exalted republicanism, and among others his 
defence of the English people against Salmasius. 
Some of those performances, full of the vehe- 
mence and animosity of the parties which then 
contended together with so much fury, too often 
passed the proper limits; but at any rate they 
served to point out the proper object, excited the 
desire of obtaining it, and awakened the most lively 
interest. In a short time they gave place to better 
regulated productions of sage and profound minds, 
which created anew the science of the law of nature 

there strictly disjoined from the civil law, upon which, until 
that time, it had made continual encroachments, and it was 
rendered subordinate to the local statutes of each particular 
state. Whilst the Protestants simplified their ecclesiastical law, 
and reduced it to a small number of indispensable regulations, 
the popes augmented still farther the immense code of apostoli- 
cal law, by incorporating with it all the decrees of the council 
of Trent, and the institutes which they caused to be composed by 
Lancellot de Perouse, of bulls, decisions, &c. Nevertheless 
the Catholic lawyers endeavoured also to give a better form, 
more consistency, and coherence to their code. Author. 



Reformation of Luther. 323 

and nations. Bacon foresaw the want of it, and 
planned the foundation of this, as well as of almost 
all the parts of the philosophical edifice. It was 
reserved for the immortal Grotius to carry light 
into the midst of darkness, to classify and arrange 
its principles, and to present to Europe the first 
code of which the wisdom and humanity of mo- 
dern times had to boast. Why has Rousseau, so 
great a man, so much the friend of truth, with- 
out a shadow of reason, calumniated Grotius in 
so strange a manner in his social contract ? Had 
he not read the law of peace and war, or had he 
forgotten what he had read ?— After Grotius, shall I 
speak of his rival Selden, of his commentator. 
Baecler, of PuffendorfF, who produced a work on 
the law of nature even superior to that on the law 
of peace and war,* of Barbeyrac, the happy 
translator, and Arrstarchus of those two works. 
In the meantime Hobbes, supporting in England 
a different system, was no less useful to the science, 
as well by the truths which he delivered, as by the 
refutations which he called forth. Algernon Sid- 
ney followed the principles opposed to those of 
Hobbes in his treatise on government, and died the 

* The work of Puffendorf, as well as that of Grotius, was 
inserted in the index, and forbidden to be read under grievous 
penalties in certain Catholic countries, as at Rome, in Austria, 
Spain, &c. Author. 

y 2 



324 Spirit and Influence of the 

martyr of his attachment to the cause of the peo- 
ple. I must put an end to my quotations, not- 
withstanding the importance of labours like these, 
and though I have still to produce such names as- 
Justus Leipsius, Coming, Forstner, Locke, Leib- 
nitz, Wolf, Thomasius, Jurieu, Burlamaqui, 
Vattel, Bolingbroke, and so many others more 
modern, in the north of Europe and America. 
Let this suffice to indicate what influence the mo- 
ral impulse communicated by the Reformation had 
upon the progress which has been made by the 
science of legislation, till that time plunged in the 
same scholastic barbarity which reigned in theo- 
logy. But while we justly attribute this influence 
on the minds of the Europeans to the Reforma- 
tion, let us beware of regarding it as an exclusive 
cause, confining its effects entirely to those coun- 
tries in which the Reformation gained the ascen- 
dancy. Italy has had its Machiavel, Spain its 
Mariana, France its Bodin, (suspected indeed of 
being secretly partisans of the Reformation.) The 
passion for these studies increased still more by 
the disputes carried on between the different par- 
ties. We have, in the eighteenth century, seen 
publications supplant those of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth, but they were enabled to surpass 
them only by the advantages they derived from 
them. Would Montesquieu have become, as he 
did, the pride of our political literature, had he 



Reformation of Luther. 325 

not enjoyed so many laborious predecessors, by 
whom the way was smoothed and prepared ? 

From all these facts it is easy to deduce this 
evident conclusion; that the Reformation, which 
from its birth was placed in such close contact 
with politics, and all the objects of public good, 
necessarily turned the minds of men toward the 
sciences which relate to the economy, and admi- 
nistration of nations. On the other hand, men, 
who in their own country lived under the conti- 
nual influence of a foreign authority, who beheld 
around them a powerful body of clergy, both se^ 
cular and regular, in possession of the finest 
estates, seizing also on the tythes, the clearest pro- 
duce of the farmers industry, such men were in- 
capable of every generous movement; the in- 
terest which they took in the cultivation of their 
natal soil was without energy. The members of 
that clerical body were besides the pastors, the 
instructors, the depositaries of all knowledge, the 
masters of all minds. Occupied with the exter- 
nal practices of devotion, with the maintenance 
of the rights of the church, these were almost 
the only subjects too on which they addressed the 
people. Hence resulted a profound ignorance and 
indifference with regard to the most precious in- 
terests of man in society. Agriculture, and all 
kinds of industry were in a state of the most de*- 
plorable degradation. Such is nearly, at this day, 



326 Spirit and Influence of the 

their condition in the fine provinces of Naples and 
Rome, in Spain and Portugal. Misery, laziness, 
immorality, and every species of vice, arise among 
a people from such dispositions ; and the state 
remains weak and ill governed. What activity on 
the other hand, what perfection in agriculture, in 
rural economy, in the general administration of 
affairs, strikes the eye of the observer amid the 
cold and barren fields of Scotland, in Great Bri- 
tain, and in Holland! There the hand of man 
creates every thing, because there it labours for 
itself; it is there all-powerful, because there it is 
free, and because information corresponding di- 
rects it. The contrast of these indubitable effects 
of the two religions is more especially perceptible in 
Germany, where the different territories intersect- 
ing one another make the traveller every moment 
pass from a Protestant country to a Catholic one. 
The mental activity produced in every country 
by the Reformation naturally then directed itself 
toward the objects of public interest in the state. 
A science of government was created which taught 
how to administer the national revenues; agricul- 
ture and commerce obtained their libraries, and 
rose above the daily repeated course of procedure, 
by the researches of genius, and the aid derived 
from other sciences, such as geography and navi- 
gation, which hence received improvement in their 
turn. The knowledge of mechanical arts, and of 



Reformation of Luther. 327 

all the objects of human industry, recovered, under 
the name of technology, a rank, among the sciences, 
which it had lost since the days of Pliny. And it 
must not be forgotten that it was on Protestant 
ground that the science of statistics was produced 
and reared to maturity, that science which pre- 
sents the register of the resources of every coun- 
try, and of which statesmen begin, even among 
the Catholic nations, to perceive the great im- 
portance. The study of these subjects has long 
formed a branch of public instruction among the 
Protestants; and their universities, in which are 
formed all the men who occupy in the state places 
of more or less importance, are provided with 
able professors in the sciences of politics and go- 
vernment, political and rural economy, commerce, 
technology, and statistics. It-is well known how 
many excellent performances on those subjects 
had been produced by the Germans, the English, 
the Scot&, the Dutch, the Swiss, before they were 
generally cultivated in the rest of Europe. It was 
from the Dutch that Colbert chiefly drew his 
views. Every body knows that it was the example 
of Frederic the Great, which made Joseph II and 
his brother Leopold conceive the plans of regene- 
ration which the one attempted in his Austrian 
states, the other in Tuscany.* 

* This is the proper place to observe that in whatever degree 



328 Spirit and Influence of the 

The whole system of knowledge to be acquired 
having changed its appearance, it was absolute 
necessary that a considerable change should also 
be produced in the system of public instruction^ 
Luther was the first who discovered the want of 
a reform in this great concern, and laboured ef- 
fectually to bring it about.* Melanchton, and 
the other principal reformers, being moreover,, as 
well as Luther, professors in universities, natu- 
rally turned their attention toward those institu- 
tions, and toward the preparatory, and inferior 
seminaries. They purged them, as far as circum- 
stances would permit, of the vices of the monkish 
and scholastic period. What they could not ef- 
fect themselves, the good spirit which they had 

the liberty of thought and public spirit pervades a nation, in the 
same degree communication becomes free and active between 
the different parties of which the community is composed, and 
all the classes of persons in the nation. The journals, the 
newspapers,, and pther periodical works in Protestant countries 
bear the strongest possibly marks of those dispositions, con:; 
both to the authors and readers of those productions , Ike 
form in those countries an object of much more serious attention 
than they do in Spain and in Italy, and than they did in France; 
till 1785. I will therefore advance, without any fear of fc _ 
belied by facts, that the journals, both political and literary, of 
England and Saxon Germany have a connection and order, of 
which the inhabitants of other countries have not perhaps a 
very just idea. Author. 

* Seelen has written a treatise of considerable merit, en= 
titled^ Lutherus de scholis optime meritus, 17 16. Author, 



Reformation of Luther. 32$ 

introduced accomplished naturally and by degrees 
in the end. It is remarkable that during the last 
three centuries, beside a great number of inferior 
establishments, Germany has been enriched with 
more than twenty universities, of which three- 
fourths are Protestant. * England founded three 
and Holland five.-f- On the part of the Catholics, 
six were founded in Italy, eight in Spain, and 
three in France. Not only have the Protestants 
the advantage, which might be equivocal, in point 
of number ; but no reasonable person will enter- 
tain a doubt that they have it also in respect to 
the instruction which is given in those universities. 
It would not, I apprehend, be considered a very 
extravagant paradox if I were to assert that there 
is more real knowledge in a single university, such 
as that of Gottingen, or Halle, or Jena, then in 
the eight Spanish universities of San-Yago-de 
Compostella, of Alcala, Grihuela, &c. In these 
is taught what must be believed whether agreeable 

* If the Protestants have founded and endowed a great 
number of schools it is because their existence depended upon 
being the best informed ; it is because the Reformation is essen- 
tially learned; because it received its first impulse from know- 
ledge; and because it can, by knowledge only, be maintained. 
Knowledge is an affair of state among the Protestant people. 

Author. 

+ I forget to mention too those which were created in Swit- 
zerland, in Sweden, and Denmark, the Protestant university 
of Dorpat in Livonia, &c. Author. 



330 Spirit and Iiifluence^qf the 

to reason or not; in the other is taught how a 
person may arrive at a reasonable belief in what- 
ever is presented to his mind. In the one place 
the Decretals are given as infallible oracles. In the 
other no oracle is acknowledged but reason, and 
well established facts. On this account it is na- 
tural, that pedantry, the child of the scholastic 
discipline, should be infinitely more rare in the 
Protestant schools than in the others. Some ex- 
ternal forms, different from those in fashion 
among us, have given rise to a prejudice vulgarly 
entertained and very ill founded that a German 
professor is a pedant. But manners different from 
ours, Greek or Latin quotations in a book in 
which they may be necessary, and such things, 
do not constitute a pedant; not even the long 
robe and the furred bonnet. Erasmus had all this 
and was not a pedant. The real essence of pe- 
dantry is, to be the enemy of reason and of liberal 
inquiry in the sciences; to rest, like a slave, one's 
belief on the authority of another; and to endea- 
vour like a tyrant, in turn, to impose that belief 
arbitrarily upon others. If such, in truth, be the 
pedant, it will be acknowledged that a learned 
Protestant cannot easily be one — a man, whose 
leading principle it is to maintain the right of every 
reasonable being to examine, to use his reason 
freely, and to keep himself exempt from all autho- 
rity. This temper rather leads to the public spi- 



Reformation of Luther. 331 

rit of literature, which ought to be regarded as 
directly the reverse of pedantry. The science 
therefore of instruction and education could not 
fail to gain by the new spirit which directed study. 
The art of teaching was improved. Bacon, w r hom 
we constantly meet wherever we search for im- 
provements in the intellectual concerns of man, 
Comenius, the celebrated author of the Janua lin- 
guarum, Sturm, Locke, and several others, laid 
the foundations of a better system of education. 
After them it was that Fenelon, Lachalotais, 
Schlaeser, and Pestalozzi wrote. Their language 
it was that the citizen of Geneva swelled into his 
sublime hyperboles. To all these great men, in 
short, and to the memorable event which unloosed 
their tongues do the present generation, and the 
generations to come ow r e the milder and at the 
same time more efficacious plans of culture and 
instruction. 

It was shewn in the preceding article in what 
manner history, since the Reformation, has gained 
by the freedom of criticism and the depth of re- 
search. It remains for us to add here that since 
that period it has been enlightened by more philo- 
sophical views. It has been made to yield great 
lessons, and great precepts; the mind, become 
more inquisitive, has endeavoured to arrange the 
shapeless mass of unconnected facts; it has laid 
fcold of a conducting thread in the labyrinth of 



532 Spirit and Lifluence of the 

time; it has observed the progress of human na- 
ture, and hence arose the philosophy of history. 
The labours, in this province, of the Scots and 
English are particularly known in France, and 
those of the French are known in all Europe. 
Those of the Germans are less so, though they 
have a considerable number of works which de- 
serve to be known, and comprised under the ge- 
neral title of " history of the improvement of the 
mind," a species which holds a sort of middle place 
between political history and literary history, and 
partakes of the nature of both. Meanwhile the 
opinions of men in pursuing these new specula- 
tions are divided concerning the destiny of the 
human race. One party will see nothing but the 
tempestuous fluctuation of an ocean without shore, 
a blind and endless series of crimes, absurdities, 
barbarities, of a few happy moments followed by 
terrible reverses; chance dictating his decrees; ne- 
cessity executing them ; braying with his iron 
hand the generations as they succeed, and throw- 
ing them into the gulph of oblivion. Others, 
adopting more consolatory views, behold in the 
progressive steps of the human species a conduct- 
ing Providence, an approximation towards a better 
order of things, a state of civil and moral perfec- 
tion. Many Protestants are to be met with who 
have adopted this latter opinion, and who pretend 
to demonstrate the certainty of it. Persons, in 



Reformation of Luther. 333 

truth, who find themselves arrived by the influence 
t)f a Reformation, of a commotion so terrible, so 
long, and so universal in Europe, at a state more 
reasonable and happy, ought to be permitted to in- 
dulge in this fine conception of the perfectibility 
of our species. Perhaps those. who are of a con- 
trary opinion are led into it by the contrary cir- 
cumstances in which they are placed, or by some 
particular disposition in themselves which allows 
them not to believe any perfection in their fellow 
creatures possible. 

Jn regard to the physical and mathematical sciences, 
It appears at first sight that the Reformation, 
though its influence may have been direct and 
considerable on the study of the historical and 
philosophical sciences, can have had no immediate 
effect upon the exact and physical sciences. But 
if we consider that a redoubled activity, that a 
spirit of inquiry communicated to the human 
mind by any great event, cannot stop without 
some effect in regard to every thing within the 
sphere of its operation, we must be convinced 
that the study of those sciences also must have 
received an advantageous impression from the 
moral impulse communicated by the Reformation. 
To this presumption pointed out by the nature of 
things is joined this historical and local considera- 
tion, that at the moment when Luther was ac- 



$34 Spirit dnd Influence of the 

comptishing at Wittemberg the reformation of 
the theological system, at sixty miles distance in 
another city of the north Copernicus was pre- 
paring that of the astronomical system. Of those 
two revolutions, accomplished by two cctempo- 
raries, thus advancing in concert, it is not easy to 
discriminate precisely how much the one assisted 
the other, what the consequences have been of 
their combination, or what are the effects which 
belong precisely to each. For this purpose it 
would be necessary to have penetrated into the 
secrets of all thoughts, and to have followed the 
most hidden steps of the progress of the human 
mind, of which few traces and monuments re- 
main. Let us however here observe, as we did 
at the beginning of this second part, that under 
the egis of the Reformation Galileos were at 
least delivered from the fear and the shame of re- 
tractations. Under this eo;is it was that Kepler 
crowned the work of Copernicus and communi- 
cated mathematical certainty to the new system, 
which in the eyes of its author probably appeared 
but logically certain. It is besides remarkable, to 
whatever cause it may have been owing, that the 
two inventors of the differential calculus, Leibnitz 
and Newton, lived, the one in Protestant Ger- 
many, the other in England. The Catholic coun- 
tries have since produced an equal number of 
great mathematicians, and natural philosophers^ 



Reformation of Luther. 335 

with the Protestant countries. It is however rea- 
sonable to suppose that the improved direction of 
study, and the greater freedom of inquiry enjoyed 
since the Reformation are one of the causes which 
have most powerfully contributed to the growth 
of those important branches of the tree of human 
knowledge.* It is more especially certain that 
the philosophical spirit, cherished as we have seen 
that it was by the Reformation, has operated in a 
very perceptible manner upon the study of ma- 
thematics and physics. It has not been thought 
perfectly sufficient to extend and improve those 
sciences in themselves; it has been accounted de- 
sirable to generalize their principles, to examine 
their foundation, and to shew whereon it rests. 
The learned Protestants have cultivated this spe- 
cies of inquiry more than the inhabitants of Ca- 
tholic countries, who appear not to regard it as of 
so much value. if The philosophy of nature, a 
science different from that called general physics, 
has received improvements which exalt it into one 
of the most sublime branches of knowledge of 

* See on this subject the dissertation of Wucherer De mere- 
mentis physices a Reformationis tempore. Author. 

+ It was Kant who first laid the principles of a theory of 
mathematical certainty, by drawing the line of distinction be- 
tween that certainty and the evidence which is obtained in me- 
taphysics j on the occasion of the question which was proposed 
©n that subject by the academy of Berlin, in 1771. Author,. 

3 



336 Spirit and Influence of the 

which the human mind has to boast. To Kant 
too it is indebted for its revival, and many of the 
principles on which it is founded. The bold 
Schelling has enriched it with views still more 
sublime.* The system of Broun, which is the 
philosophy of organized nature only, was pro- 
duced in Scotland, and has been cultivated and 
improved in Germany. It is despised in France, 
where it is still imperfectly known. -j- 

With regard to the military science, which is 
usually treated as an appendix to the mathemati- 
cal sciences, the north of Germany appears to 
have been destined in modern times to contribute 
most remarkably to its improvement. The im- 
perfect state of tactics before the thirty years war 

* It may not be improper to remark that the doctrine here 
applauded by our author, which in this country has received the 
name of the metaphysics of mathematics, though some very 
extensive views have been opened in it, is yet chiefly composed 
of arbitrary theories, unsupported by any just evidence, and 
leading to no useful conclusion. Of this nature are the greater 
number of the speculations of Kant. 

+ It will appear amusing to the persons in this country who 
are acquainted with the subject to hear the Brownian system 
spoken of in this grave and solemn manner. They will not so 
much wonder how it is despised in France, as how it comes to 
be admired in Germany. In this country it has been regarded 
as a very good display of ingenuity, and a subject about which 
to converse and laugh, among those who considered the subject; 
but hardly ever has it been regarded in a. more serious light 



Reformation of Luther* 337 

is well known. Gustavus Adolphus was the re- 
former in this , art, and it assumed under him a 
new physiognomy in the fields of Saxony and Bo- 
hemia. On the same ground, about a century 
later, Frederick II king 1 of Prussia, still contend- 
ing with that same house of Austria which the 
hero of Sweden had humbled, had the fortune to 
complete the work of Gustavus Adolphus, and to 
carry modern tactics to a state of perfection, in 
which for the future it will certainly remain fixed, 
with regard, at least, to its essential elements.* 

In regard to the Belles-Lettres. 

By redoubling the passion for .the study of the 
ancient languages, by rendering it more necessary 
and more general, both among Catholics and 
Protestants, the Reformation, it will not be dis- 
puted, has contributed powerfully to the cultiva- 
tion of the belles-lettres, and the revival of good 
taste. According as the classical works of anti- 
quity, those eternal models of composition, sim- 
ple and sublime as nature herself, became gene- 
rally known, the minds of men rose by degrees 

* It is violently to be suspected that on this subject M. Vil- 
lers has allowed himself to speak without knowledge. Men 
who have most deeply studied the matter,, it is known, are of opi- 
nion that the radical principles of Frederic, even in the disci- 
pline of armies, are entirely wrong j as indeed the success of 
same innovations by the French republicans have led even th# 
most ignorant of us to surmisei 

z 



338 Spirit and Influence of the 

to their elevation, and escaped from the barbarity 
of gothic times.-f~ This revolution was begun in 
Italy by the emigrant Greeks who there chiefly 
established themselves. The Reformation assisted 
in propagating the benefit to the countries of Eu- 
rope which were the farthest removed from that 
centre. 

To those, however, whose enthusiasm was 
kindled by the sparks of ancient genius, a lan- 
guage was wanting of which they might make 
use, a pliant and animate organ to express their 
animated conceptions. The modern languages 
were in that gross and uncultivated state in which 
a long disuse had sunk them. Only in the south 
the Italian, and perhaps the provencal its relative, 
had received considerable purification. In the 
rest of Europe all men wrote in Latin : Latin was 
the language of schools and of books. And what 
Latin? A jargon which bore all the blemishes of 
eleven centuries of corruption and bad taste. 
Even if the study of Cicero, and of the other 
masters of the Roman language could have 
amended and purified that jargon, as in fact it 
did, still this Latin, whether good or bad, was 
the language of a small number only of indivi- 



+ See the work of Stock, entitled De bonarum literarum 
Palingenesia sub et post reformationem,— See also Morhoffj 
&c. Author, 



Reformation of Luthef. 33Q 

duals, and remained a sealed letter to the people* 
Now, the profound sciences might without in- 
convenience )oe delivered in the language of the 
adepts. Did the learned treat in Latin of those 
things which the learned only ought to read, let 
them do so* We might still on those terms be- 
hold mathematics, physics, and other branches of 
philosophy advanced to some perfection. But 
how would it be possible to see literature flourish, 
without a common language, without a people, 
or, if you will, without a public ? Of the pro- 
ductions of taste, and imagination, it belongs to 
every one to judge. The audience of a poet, or 
of the writer in prose who addresses himself to 
the fancy, and the feelings of his readers, cannot 
be confined to Latin people. He requires all 
classes, all ages, and all sexes* He must speak 
the language of courts and of taverns, of count- 
ing-houses, and of camps, of the inhabitants of 
the town, and of the inhabitants of the country. 
He has to do with all minds and with all hearts, 
more especially the most ingenuous, the most 
open to all impressions, those least acquainted 
with Latin. Where Vaniere finds scarcely a hun- 
dred readers, Delille reckons thousands. To ena- 
ble every nation to have a national literature it 
was necessary to write in its language ; it was ne- 
cessary that all classes of the people should be- 
come accustomed to read. Some great event, 

z 2 



340 Spirit and Influence of (he 

some powerful interest was required; something 
which might become the favourite entertainment 
of every body, which would agitate every mind, 
and find universal reception. After such a change 
only could authors be found who would write for 
the people, and a people who would eagerly read 
what they wrote. Such an event was the Re- 
formation, which became the living source of an 
interest inexhaustible and common to all classes 
of mankind. 

The Reformation begun by learned men, and 
first produced within the narrow circle of the 
public who spoke Latin, could never have been 
accomplished had it remained within those limits, 
It was necessary for it to go beyond them ; to be- 
come the cause of the multitude; to gain millions 
of minds, that it might arm millions of hands in 
its favour. An appeal to the people was the first 
step of the reformers; and it was requisite to 
make it in their own language. When the people 
had thus been called upon to judge and decide, 
the adversaries of the Reformation were soon 
obliged to come and plead before the same tribu- 
nal, and they spared no efforts to preserve the 
people on their side, or to recover them if drawn 
away. This controversy, removed from the schools, 
and become the principal concern of all Europe, 
was the first active principle by which our modern 
languages were enriched. Previously they were 



Reformation of Luther. 341 

only jargons, as rude as the multitude who made 
use of them. Some amorous poetry was not suf- 
ficient to give them that fertility and variety 
which were necessary to fit them for treating all 
sorts of subjects. The universal animosity be- 
tween the Papists and the Protestants, the long 
troubles of Germany and Switzerland, those of 
the league in France, those of the low countries, 
those of Scotland and England, became so many 
forges in which the different languages of those 
countries were wrought and purified. The Mar- 
quis d'Argens, in his History of the Human 
Mind, after having described the state of literature 
before the sixteenth century, says, ■" In this time 
of ignorance Luther appeared, like one of those 
happy lights, which, after a long tempest, appear 
to sailors assuring them of an approaching calm. 
This great man did as much good to science as he 
did evil to the court of Rome. He shewed the 
absurdity of the errors which old respect, and 
ancient custom had rendered sacred. He ridi- 
culed not only the opinions of theologians, but 
their language and their mode of writing. He 
was seconded in his views by Calvin, and to the 
disputes about religion it is that we are indebted 
for the return of elegance and beauty in stile. 
The theologians of the different parties, vied with 
ouq another in obtaining the honour of writing 



342 Spirit and Influence of the 

correctly, and of engaging their readers by the 
purity of their stile." 

The German nation acknowledges Luther as the 
reformer of its literature and of its language. 
One of his first cares was to publish a faithful 
translation of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, 
done by himself and a few coadjutors from the 
originals. We may easily imagine with what 
avidity this mighty work was received, and how 
great and general a sensation it excited. It is 
considered at this day as an authority, and forms' 
the chief classical foundation of what is called 
High-German. It was in this language that he 
wrote the greater part of his books, treatises, 
letters, discourses, poems, of which the collection 
forms twenty-two quarto volumes. One of the 
first of those performances was that entitled, 
" Of Christian Liberty," to which he prefixed an 
epistle dedicatory equally decent, free, and liberal, 
to Pope Leo X. " No writer for many centuries," 
says M. Georges Muller de Schaffouse, in his 
letters on the sciences, " had seen his works car- 
ried off with so much rapidity, and so universally 
read from the throne to the cottage. All were se- 
veral times reprinted, pirated, and retailed through 
the whole empire. The popularity, the natural 
vehemence, the energy of expression by which 
they were distinguished, and his principles which 
exhilarated and raised the soul, gained for him all 



Reformation of Luther. 343 

the most sensible and upright people of all classes. 
A multitude of pamphlets, of temporary papers, 
and of ballads, which have come down to us from 
that period, afford testimony of the ravishment 
inspired by that vivifying light."*** Wickliff 
had already translated the New Testament into 
English ; and as soon as the Reformation had in 
England rendered the perusal of the Scriptures a 
matter of the first necessity for the people, Tindal, 
Ray, and others, published a version of them. 
The same thing happened in France, where the 
Reformation multiplied French bibles, and put 
them into every person's hands.* When the Ca- 
tholic theologians saw those great mysteries of 
religion become the prey of the ignorant, they 
resolved to countermine, tc publish also their 
translations, their commentaries, and explications 
of the Holy Scriptures. It does not concerri> 
our inquiry to determine whether they or their 

* Father Simon, indeed, pretends., in his Critical History of 
the Old Testament, p. 322, that the first French bible was 
that of Antwerp, in 1530, reviewed by the theologians of Lou- 
vain, and that the Catholics were thus the first authors of the 
French bibles which are now in use. But Father Simon knew 
not that this bible was the work of Jacques Lefevre > commonly 
known by the name of Faber Stapulensis, the confident of the 
Queen of Navarre, suspected on good grounds of being a par- 
tisan of Luther, declared an heretic by the Sorbonne, and de-' 
prived of his doctor's degree. This translation of the bible 
even served as the foundation of that of Geneva. Author. 




344 Spirit and Influence of the 

adversaries were right. We shall be satisfied with 
remarking in general that the languages of Europe 
were improved by these religious and political 
controversies, by these translations and exposi- 
tions, which is enough for the object we have 
in view. 

It would certainly be too bold to advance farther 
in ascribing effects on polite literature to the Re- 
formation. * So many different causes have con- 
tributed to its cultivation, and to the different 
modifications which it has received in the different 
European nations, that any man who should ven- 
ture into this labyrinth would be in danger of 
losing himself, of confounding objects, and giving 
as certain conclusions what would be only ingenious 
conjectures. The Protestant nations, which may 
be considered as of the German race, have all so 
many points of resemblance in their manners, 
language, climate, that we must not at once 
regard some coincidence in the character and 
genius of their literary productions as the imme- 

* However we may still add that the people of cities, and of 
the country, who hear regularly the services of religion in their 
own language, who sing psalms, hymns, and fine pieces of 
poetry, written as they are in Germany by the best poets of the 
nation, acquire by that means a multitude of ideas, a taste and 
perception of what is beautiful, which cannot be acquired by 
those who attend services performed in bad Latin which they do 
not understand. Author. 



Reformation of Luther. 345 

diate effects of the great revolution which they all 
experienced. The spirit of each people, so deeply 
modified by many events and generations, has its 
peculiar tendency, its natural disposition, which 
cannot be attributed to a single and unconnected 
circumstance. The unanimity with which the 
nations, at present reformed, embraced the Re- 
formation as soon as it presented itself, was only 
a consequence of that uniformity of mind which 
prevailed among them. Their tendency in the 
same course (regarding the subject in general) 
has always been to simplify religion, to render it 
more austere and intellectual, while they remain 
inviolably attached to theism and morality, which 
are its foundation. The manners of Protestant 
nations too are incontestibly more severe and 
better than those of Catholic nations. Is it be- 
cause those nations are Protestant that they have 
acquired this character ? Or is it because they have 
this character that they have become Protestant ? 
This I leave others to decide. I only propose to 
shew the influence of this character on the culti- 
vation of polite literature. The French and 
Italian literature abounds with works in which 
love is treated of with the most exquisite delicacy 
and grace. In vain should we search among the 
English and Germans for so many of those agree- 
able productions. I will even venture to say that 
the few which they have are entirely imitations, 

9 



t of the 

that they are not indigenous plants in tbc 
B. Love curst not there exhibit hin 
excited bv the desires and the companion of vo- 
luptuousness. Their Bocaccios, their Grecourts, 
even their Lafintaines, bai a be produce 

Should they appear, they would ly received; 

and it is not by the softened imitations of th 
.:h Wieland has attempted that he has ob- 
es::-em among his countrymen. In 
short, their songs, :rld 

of their poets, differ e. in what is found 

mg their neighbours. I venture not to de- 
: . e Reformation. 

- at lea: 
however ;.:: 

: epic poems, in ■ he God of the 

Christians, and the inhabitants of heaven are the 
: re, and m s speak a language 

. : .;. . the two n pes 

::' i ue 3 that of the 

of qui f.. st pseats, wad :..: : :. 
are ?r: nort 

r T:,'.: :: : : v :::'z: r.: :. . r : : ring is 

. ' " ": '."."..■: rricus r.::en:::r: :'.u: lie dirrerer: r: :: 

:r.::i-f " ■:.::-.". := :'.:.:.i ber^e-err Ci:i::l:: zr.r Fr: r=:=r.: :: :..::;-5. 
A dcrree cf di-cl-eneis :...;". :.:::: :me~ rjre.iri ..: me 
firmer, vL.:L m~m"i :::\r.i i ;:::!■;. r.r c:r.::i- ; : "•■".-*„ vv.m is 
seer: in ::: lm::r. rir. ':::. : - be reckoned 

t and correct, when compared with tLe Cathohc countries. 



Reformation of Luther. 34f 

golden age of Italian poetry produced the Jeru- 
salem of Tasso ; the Paradise Lost, and the Mes- 
siah would be the only two epic poems of which 
modern literature has to boast. 

In fine the reasonings and analysing spirit to 
which the Reformation, as we have already shewn, 
opened a free course, introduced itself into the 
territories of the imagination also, and took post 
there where it could ; that is to say, in the theore- 
tical part of the belles-lettres, in systems con- 
cerning taste, sentiment, the beautiful, the sub- 
lime, &c. and it is well-known that the men of 
letters among the Protestants have laboured be- 
yond their proportion in this field, and perhaps 
with more skill and success than their neighbours. 
It is among them that the abstract part of literary 
criticism has become formally a science under the 
name of Esthetics. This name was given to it by 
the German Baumgarten, from the Greek word 
which signifies feeling. Lessing has produced 
some fine pieces of this description. Kant has 
founded a new esthetical school by his criticism of 
the Judgment. He has had many ingenious dis « 
ciples. The most remarkable among them both 
in theory and practice is the illustrious Schiller. 

In regard to the Fine Arts. 

When a pompous worship requires magnificent 
temples, imposing ceremonies, and splendid deco- 



348 Spirit and Influence of the 

rations; when religion presents to men's eyes the 
sensible images of the objects of public worship ; 
when it rests on a sacred mythology ; when the 
earth and heavens are peopled with supernatural 
beings to whom the imagination may lend a form ; 
then it is that the arts, encouraged and ennobled, 
attain the height of their glory and perfection. 
The architect, called to honours and fortune, 
conceives the plan of those temples and cathedrals, 
the sight of which imposes a religious awe, and of 
which the walls are adorned with the finest pro- 
ductions of art. This temple, those altars are or- 
namented with marble and precious metals, which 
sculpture has formed into angels, saints, and the 
images of illustrious men. All the different 
apartments are decorated and filled with pictures. 
In one place is Jesus expiring upon a cross. In 
another he is shining on mount Tabor in all the 
Divine Majesty. Art, so nearly allied to what is 
/ ideal, and which delights in ascending to heaven, 
repairs thither to seek for its most sublime crea- 
tions; a St. John, a Cecilia, and particularly a 
Mary, that patroness of all tender and ardent 
souls, that virgin model of all mothers, the inter- 
cessor of grace placed between man and his God, 
that elysian, that august, and interesting Being, 
whom no other religion offers any thing that 
resembles. During those solemnities the finest 
stuffs, precious stones^ and embroideries, cover 



Reformation of Luther, 34§ 

the altars, the vases, the priests, and even the 
partitions of the sacred place. Music completes 
the charm by the most exquisite strains, and the 
harmony of various instruments. Those powerful 
encouragements are repeated in a thousand dif- 
ferent places. Capitals, parishes, the numerous 
convents, even the most humble congregations, 
strive to excel in splendour, and to captivate all 
the faculties of the devout and religious mind. 
Thus a taste for the arts becomes general by meansy 
of so powerful an exciting cause. Artists multi- 
ply and vie with one another in their efforts. The 
celebrated schools of Italy and Flanders flourished 
under that influence, and their beautiful productions 
which have come down to us afford abundant tes- 
timony of the greatness of the encouragements 
which they derived from the Catholic worship. 

According to this natural progress of things, it 
is not to be doubted that the Reformation has been 
unfavourable to the fine arts, and has considerably 
restrained their exercise. It has broken the chain 
which united them to religion, which rendered 
them sacred, and secured to them a share in the 
veneration of the people. The liturgy of the 
Lutherans, and still more that of the Calvinists, 
is simple and austere. A stone and a piece of 
cloth form the altar ; a pulpit and benches are all 
the decorations required in the temple. Nothing 
is wanted here but the Gospel and a few hymns 



350 Spirit and Influence of the 

sung by the congregation, which treat of morality 
and the duties of the Christian. AH ornament* 
pomp and elegance, are removed. The priest is 
covered with a modest black robe. The worship 
of no saint, of no angel, and still less of their 
images, is recommended to the pious soul. Thi9 
mode of worship might be denominated dull and 
heavy in comparison of that of the Catholics ; if 
indeed an assembly of men united to worship their 
Maker in company could be consistent with the 
idea of dulness. However it is certain that this 
species of worship, though it may elevate the 
heart, has a tendency to dissolve the enchantment 
of the imagination; it renders superb churches^ 
statues, and paintings useless ; it destroys the po- 
pularity of the arts, and deprives them of one of 
their most powerful stimulants. 

Besides this general disposition* suited to a 
worship which so severely restricts itself to the 
pure spirit of the primitive church* and indulges 
in no coquetry with the senses* we must likewise 
attend to the particular disposition of the people 
who have embraced the Reformation. They in 
general live under the severest climate in Europe. 
They are more phlegmatic* more cold* and more 
given to meditation than the people of the south. 
Their eyes are not presented with so fine an ap- 
pearance of nature ; they breathe not the volup- 
tuous* sweet* and intoxicating air of an Italian 



Reformation of Luther. 351 

sky. Independently of the Reformation then, 
they are not so well situated, they are not in such 
favourable circumstances for the practice of the 
arts, as the Italians for example. No doubt they 
have produced, and do still produce valuable 
artists, but not of a kind to excel those of Italy, 
or even to equal them. Their real service to the 
arts, which proceeds from their reflecting, analysing 
spirit, consists in treating of the theory of them 
with peculiar profundity ; in observing and tracing 
out the principles, which guide the great artists 
even without their own knowledge: in marking 
the operations of the imagination and the intellect 
in their productions ; in discovering the connec- 
tion between the ideal nature of the arts and real 
nature; in short in developing the principles and 
the philosophy of the arts. The Italian feels, 
and produces: Hemsterhusius, Kant, Burke^ 
Goethe think, and analyse the production and the 
faculty of producing. The one has the instinct 
of the art ; the other has the intelligence. The 
one creates; the other judges the creation, and 
investigates its laws. These two functions equally 
imply genius. The first bodies it forth in external 
forms; the second exhibits it in the discoveries of 
the understanding. The one may be called the 
legislative, the other the executive, power in the 
fine arts. 



352 Spirit and Influence of the 



SECTION II. 

Consequences of the Events which accompanied and, 
followed the Reformation. 

Disturbances and Wars in the political World \ 
Controversies in the theological World. 

xiAD the Reformation concerned only doctrinal 
points, and had nothing been attacked by Luther 
but tran substantiation or grace, this obscure dis- 
pute would have remained in the schools, and 
would scarcely have obtained the honour of a bull 
to condemn it. The Holy Father would care- 
lessly have treated the new heresy like a thousand 
others which have passed away without producing 
any memorable effect. The people, and their 
rulers, would probably have never heard of a 
quarrel in which they had no interest. But 
Luther not only attacked the spirit or the doctrines 
of Popery; he carried the sword all at once into 
the most vulnerable part of the temporalities of 
the church, and began his heresy with the apos- 
tolical finances. No one, after this, could remain 
indifferent ; those who levied the taxes naturally 
uttered loud complaints ; those who were relieved 
from paying them naturally joined with zeal the 



Reformation of Luther. 353 

innovators. The most powerful, however, of 
the Christian princes, he who menaced the inde- 
pendence of all the rest, thought proper to sup- 
port the pretensions of Rome. Others who be- 
held at that juncture the double opportunity of 
delivering themselves at once from the papal des- 
potism, and from the yoke of Austria, resolved to 
take arms in defence of the Reformation, and 
permitted themselves, together with their people, 
to be carried along by the torrent. Hence re- 
sulted also this double misfortune that the wars 
which arose assumed a religious and fanatical cha- 
racter ; by consequence more violent, more terri- 
ble and sanguinary than the character of other 
wars ; and that the controversies of theologians 
acquired a political importance, and an universality 
which rendered their effects more fatal, more 
protracted, and more extensive, than those of all 
the numerous controversies which till that time 
had agitated the Christian church. 

This was the source of those frightful evils and 
disasters which accompanied and followed the 
Reformation ; this was the cause of a century and 
a • half of terrible convulsions, of bloody wars > 
insurrections, and troubles in Europe. A spark, 
struck by Luther to light a torch, fell among heaps 
of gunpowder, on a spot full of mines. The 
explosion shook all the West, and threatened to 
bring back the night of barbarity which had just 

A A 



354 Spirit and Influence of the 

begun to be dissipated. But fortunately the torch 
also was lighted, and when the clouds of the 
vapours raised by the volcano began to disperse; 
its beneficent light appeared like the star obscured 
by the tempest, which, on the return of calm, 
serves to direct the mariner in his course.* 

It is necessary then to say, with some adver- 
saries of the Reformation, that for a moment it 
turned the course of knowledge and science back- 
wards. Let us only think of the unparalleled de- 
vastations of which unhappy Germany became the 
prey ; of the war of the peasants in Swabia, that 
of the anabaptists ot Munster, that of the league 
of Smalcald against Charles V ; and of that ter- 
rible war which lasted till the treaty of Westphalia, 
and even after that treaty till its entire execution. 
The empire was by this means changed into a vast 
sepulchre, in which two generations were swal- 
lowed up; when the cities were converted into 

* Were it not that we are not yet come to an end of the 
commotions and disturbances occasioned by the French revolu- 
tion, it would be a curious task to compare the disastrous con- 
sequences of this event with those of the Reformation. If near 
a whole century of war and bloodshed was necessary to restore 
tranquillity after this tempest, we have still to augur no little 
evil from the present aspect of affairs in Europe. Hereafter it 
will form an important object to the philosophical historian to 
compare both the good and the bad effects of those two events^, 
the greatest in themselves, and the most pregnant with conse- 
quences, in the history of modern Europe. 



Reformation of Luther. 355 

smoking ruins and heaps of ashes, the schools 
deserted and without teachers, agriculture was 
destroyed, and manufactures burned. Let us con- 
sider farther that in this desolated country the 
minds of men were exasperated, disunited, and 
full of rancour, on account of their long discor- 
dance. Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Ana- 
baptists, Moravians, all accused one another, and 
attributed each to the rest the dismal wounds their 
country had sustained; that country which had 
not only been torn to pieces by her own children, 
but abandoned for such a length of time to the 
troops of Spain and Italy, the fanatics of Bohemia, 
the hordes of Turkey, the French, Swedish, and 
Danish armies, which vied with one another in 
spreading the carnage and desolation of war; of 
war, such as it manifested itself in the seventeenth 
century, that is, with all the characteristics of a 
civil and religious war. Much time is necessary 
for a country to recover from commotions of this 
nature, and a state of ruin so complete. We see 
accordingly that the German nation, after having 
at first made rapid steps in the culture of the 
sciences, till the end of the peace which was pre- 
served during the life of Luther, fell back during 
part of the seventeenth century into a sort of 
stupor, an almost total loss of cultivation. Its 
literature during that period remained behind that 
of the Italians, of the French, and of the Eng- 
AA2 



356 Spirit and Influence of the 

lish; and hence is dated the prejudice, not yet 
entirely extinct among these nations, against the 
German genius. Since that era things have 
greatly changed their aspect; but prejudices last 
longer than things ; and national vanity, strength- 
ened by habit which inclines to believe, by laziness 
which prevents examination, will probably render 
this prepossession very difficult to eradicate. 

It was not alone on its natal soil where its cause 
was disputed with so much fury and bloodshed, 
that the Reformation occasioned unfortunate 
commotions. France could not escape them; 
but the disturbances in that country were neither 
so long nor so destructive as those in Germany. 
That latter country was in the most deplorable si- 
tuation at the time when France had finally healed 
all her wounds, under Sully, Richelieu, Mazarin, 
and attained the summit of her political and lite- 
rary glory. The Low Countries were the field of 
the convulsive struggle of Spain against the new 
republic of Holland. The evils which this pro- 
duced in that part of Europe almost equalled those 
of the rest of the empire. Finally England was 
harassed by internal commotions, which have been 
already briefly described in the particular article in 
which we treated of that power. These circum- 
stances are sufficient to extort from us the confes- 
sion, that since the time of the irruption of the 
northern nations into the Roman empire, no event 



Reformation of Luther. 357 

had produced in Europe ravages of such duration 
and extent as the war lighted up by the furnace of 
the Reformation. In this point of view it is but 
too true that it retarded the progress of general 
improvement. But after the conflagration was at 
an end, the solid advantages were reaped which 
we owe to it, in the better direction, the new 
activity, the freedom which it gave to the human 
mind, and in the removal of those vast obstacles 
which obstructed its path, and invincibly impeded 
its progress. 

Besides, I ask; was it the Reformation which 
called the monarchs and people to battle ? The 
Reformation, in itself, was nothing but the act by 
which reason declared itself emancipated from the 
yoke of arbitrary authority; an emancipation 
which was nothing but a natural and necessary \ 
consequence of the restoration of learning. The 
object was to present to Christians the Gospel in 
its purity, and obtain deliverance from the exor- 
bitant pretensions of the Popes. The opponents 
of this Reformation were sufficiently enraged, 
sufficiently wicked, to seek to extinguish it in the 
blood of its promoters. They alone are guilty of 
all the evils which resulted from it. The terrible 
efforts made to destroy the Reformation only 
prove to. eyery man who is incapable of estimating 
the event, how necessary it was. 

A more direct and apparently a more just aecus 



358 Sp irit and Influen ce of , the 

sation which might be urged against the Refor- 
mation is, that it lighted up with inconceivable 
fury the flames of theological disputation, which 
seized upon every mind, were every where diffused, 
and wasted to no purpose so much knowledge, 
genius, labour, and erudition, which were so la- 
vishly employed to feed them. The attention of 
the learned world was turned for more than a cen- 
tury toward those miserable quarrels about dogmas 
and forms, which became a powerful obstacle to 
the progress of science. They strengthened the 
disposition towards the mystic reveries and absur- 
dities of some over-heated brains. Controversies 
naturally arose between the theologians of Rome 
and those of the Reformation. On both sides 
they were violent, accompanied by anger and 
abuse.* The bitterness, too natural in such dis- 

* Luther has been greatly reproached, and by Voltaire 
among others, for some invectives and expressions of contempt 
which he allowed himself to use against the Pope. Voltaire 
himself has used much more indecent ones, and with less 
reason, against his adversaries. Luther at the beginning 
shewed himself very submissive and very respectful to the head 
of the church. He expressed himself at first, and very fre- 
quently afterwards, with great moderation and decorum. But 
let any man think of the horrible abuse which was heaped upon- 
him, let any one read the libels of the Hochstratens, of the 
Eckiuses, of the Tetzels, &c. and he will then be able to say 
whether he can condemn the indignation and intemperance 
which Luther sometimes exhibits. Had he not been ardent and 



Reformation of Luther. 35Q 

cussions, and in such circumstances, was propa- 
gated from year to year, from controversy to con- 
troversy, and has contributed not a little to give 
to the literary quarrels of succeeding times that 
tone of animosity which is observed in them more 
than at any other period. 

Notonly were these disputes maintained between 
the Catholics and the innovators; but in the 
bosom of the Reformation itself, and among its 
partisans, furious contests quickly arose. I can- 
not here recapitulate the history of all the sects, 
and of all the theories which the unlimited free- 
dom of the Reformation produced in such multi- 
tudes. Those sects, all hostile to Rome, treated 
one another no better than they treated the 
Papists. Besides the fanatical fraternities of Ana- 
baptists, of Memnonites, of Adamites, of Munt- 
zerians, of Puritans, &c; besides the violent con- 
tests which Luther, Melanchton, and others, had 

irritable, how could he have become the leader of so great a re- 
volution ? His enemies, had it been in their power, would have 
burned him like John Huss. For his part he was satisfied with 
ridiculing them) and made nobody be burned. Against oppo- 
nents who employed tortures and burning piles, is it so unpar- 
donable a crime to employ sarcasms, even though not con- 
formable to the purest taste ? Good taste was very little the 
taste of the sixteenth century. Besides good taste requires mo- 
deration and tranquillity j but how could moderation be found 
in a struggle where every interest and passion was engaged ? 

. ■ Author, 



300 Spirit and Influence of the 

to support against Carlostadius, CEcolampadius, 
&c. concerning certain sacraments, important 
schisms arose in the evangelical church, which 
became connected with politics, and had even 
some influence on the fate of nations. The Re- 
formation in Switzerland dissented from the Re- 
formation in Saxony ; and the English church was 
established independent of both. The struggle 
was long and violent between Lutheranism and 
Calvinism.* So many vain disputes could not 
have taken place but at the expense of useful in- 
quiry and knowledge, of which the culture be- 
came neglected by their means. This does not 
contradict what I advanced above concerning the 
happy effects of the moral impulse communicated 
by the Reformation. I have presented those effects 

* If I have not spoken more of the schism between the 
Lutherans and Calvinists, the reason is that it was not my bu- 
siness to give an account of the influence of the Reformation 
upon religious opinions and faith. That schism produced few 
important effects with regard to the political situation of states, 
since the Calvinists obtained in the Empire the same privileges 
as the Lutherans It only introduced some misunderstandings 
and intestine disorders into the evangelical body, to which, on 
that account, it has been hurtful. The electoral houses of 
Saxony and the Palatinate, among others, had violent disputes 
on this subject. But I could not enter into them. My sole ob- 
ject necessarily was to exhibit the effects which were important 
£0 the rest of Europe. Those domestic squabbles of the Refor~ 
mation had no effects of this description. Author, 



Reformation of Luther. 36 1 

such as they in reality were, without restricting 
myself to the order of time. And thus should be 
understood and interpreted any thing which may 
appear contradictory in what I have previously 
stated in favour, and what I have now advanced 
to the disadvantage, of the Reformation. 

Let us observe, however, that those religious 
disputes, relating only to different opinions in 
matters of theology and faith, have contributed 
to preserve alive in Protestant countries that spirit 
of religion, and that attachment to Christianity, 
which is found much more conspicuous than in 
Catholic countries. Far better is it, after all, to 
dispute about religion, than peaceably to consent 
to have none. Much rather dispute about th 
manner of worshipping Gop, than disbelieve in 
him altogether, and lie down in neglect and indif- 
ference about every thing which concerns our re- 
lation to the Divine Being. Still better is it, un- 
doubtedly, sincerely to worship God, and leave 
every man at liberty to perform this great act in 
his own way. This is precisely what the different 
Protestant people, some sooner, some later, came 
at last to do. They began with argumentation 
and controversy ; they have ended with philosophy 
and toleration; and the religious spirit remains.* 

* Religious discussion has produced some other good effects 
by the propensity which it has cultivated in the rainds of men 



362 Spirit and Influence of the 

Let us still farther remark, that this theological 
restlersness, which produced among the Protestants 
so many useless and even pernicious controversies. 
was by no means in the nature of the Reformation : 
it belonged to the age, and to Christianity in 
general. The first reformers were Catholic theo- 
logians, reared in the bosom of the Romish 
church, who carried its punctilious irritability into 
their new system. It was not because they were 
Lutherans or Calvinists, that the new doctors 
were full of subtleties, trifling, and quarrelsome; 
it was because they had been Catholics, and be- 
cause they were continually engaged in defending 
themselves against Catholic doctors. This dispu- 
tatious spirit was transmitted, as may be readily 
supposed, to their immediate successors. But it 
was at last subdued and extinguished by the true 
spirit of the Reformation, which is no other than 

for philosophy and speculation. Would our gTeat Descartes 
have founded a school, would his doctrines have produced the 
sensation and the benefits which they did, had they not found 
in Holland so ardent controverters and ardent supporieri. 
Holland was the real country cf Carthesianism. There too it 
was that all those emigrant theologians, Saurin, Jcriei:, Bas- 
nage, wrote and discussed: wh, :.e zeal of 

our Arnaulds, Bossuets, Nicoles, in whose answers, as well as 
in the replies -of their opponents, we can name several exqu:5;:e 
performances, works remarkable for that eloquence which 
arises from the warmth of the soul, for their beau:; : Stile, 
the erudition by which they are distinguished. Author. 



Reformation of Luther. 363 

that of the Gospel ; and by that of science and 
philosophy, which is no other than that of the 
human race. 

Abelard and St. Bernard were not Protestants ; 
nor yet the two parties of Franciscans in the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth centuries. What a deluge 
of controversy and scholastic barbarity did both 
produce? The Christian church, since the time of 
the Apostles, has always been afflicted with this 
rage for disputation about opinions. From Simon 
Magus, Cerinthus, and Ebbion, to Jansenius, 
Quesnel, and the last days of the Sorbonne, 
nothing has been seen but disputes, outrageous 
parties, hatreds, and condemnations. How in 
this church could a sudden revolution be produced 
without exhibiting the same scenes ? How could 
such a volcano burst without shedding torrents of 
lava? Poor reason had been so long held captive 
in the schools of theology, that it could not at 
first make the most proper use of its liberty. A 
prisoner, when his chains are broken off, when 
the door of his dungeon is opened, walks out with 
unsteady steps; his benumbed limbs cannot sup- 
port him ; the light of day, intended to make him 
see, strikes him with blindness; he wanders with- 
out knowing where he is going; strikes against 
every obstacle ; falls, and bruises himself. Would 
it on this account have been better to leave the 



364 - Spirit and Influence of the 

man in his dungeon ? The adversaries of the Re- 
formation say that it would. 

Secret Societies; Freemasons; Rosy 'crucians ; Mys- 
tics; Illuminati. 

When a certain number of individuals, forming 
a feeble minority in the midst of nations, find 
themselves possessed of opinions which they re- 
gard as important, and which they dare not make 
public, either because they consider them as dan- 
gerous for the multitude, or because they would 
expose themselves to persecution by professing 
them openly, or from any other cause, then arises 
for those individuals the necessity of secret meet- 
ings in which they may profess their doctrines 
with freedom; an intimate fraternity must be 
established among the members of the association ; 
caths not to betray, marks and signs to distinguish 
one another among strangers must be employed. 
Hence the mysteries of Egypt, and Greece, of 
Pythagoras, &c. It is abundantly certain that 
from the fall of the Roman empire several of those 
mysterious confederacies have existed, and that 
some of them have passed down to us through all 
the middle ages. Without attending to all the 
stories real or fabulous which several of them give 
concerning their origin, and which are often 
founded only on romantic traditions, deceitful 
symbols, or supposed monuments, we will stop to. 



_ l: , jqtmjiPeformation of Luther. 305 

remark tr*feth§ course of things could never have 
rendere&JJxo'se so necessary and so mysterious as 
W^ 'were rendered by the abuses of hierarchical 
despotism, the inquisition and all the kinds of 
vexation which the agents of Rome exercised in 
dre^imes which preceded the Reformation. Many 
incuvicfuals, of all .classes, there were, whose eyes 
were opened to those abuses, and who wet& sen- 
sible of their enormity; but they carefully shut 
up within their own bosoms a secret, which, had 
it escaped, would have conducted them to the 
stake. Only when in some concealed place they 
met with a trusty friend who shared in their 
opinions, did they give vent to the sentiments 
with which their bosoms laboured ; they relieved 
themselves by whispers of the load which op- 
pressed them; devised the means of -uniting to- 
gether, of supporting one another, and of form- 
ing a narrow circle-in which the tyrants of thought 
could not reach them. It is more than probable 
that such societies existed at the time of the Re- 
formation. The Wickliffites in England and 
Scotland, the Hussites in Bohemia, Silesia, and 
Moravia, as well as the remains of the Albigenses 
in France, must undoubtedly have experienced 
this want of mental communication, as well as 
the necessity of carefully concealing themselves; 
two conditions which are of chief importance in 
the foundation of those societies. How much 



3do Spirit and Lifiuence of tfe£*% 

more pressing, and general did those causes be- 
come when the Reformation broke out 'jtffr 
Saxony, and every where redoubled the actfmy 
and vigilance of the spies and inquisitors of Rome? 
There was no Catholic country in which the prin- 
ciples ot Luther had not gained a great many par- 
tisans. The situation of those secret adherents 
of the Reformation was perilous in the extreme, 
A single suspicion ruined them, and gave them 
up to punishment. The excessive constraint 
which they imposed upon themselves could attain 
no intermission or alleviation, except in the se~ 
cresy of those mysterious assemblies. B the or- 
der of Freemasons did not then receive its birth, 
that is to say about the end of the sixteenth or 
the beginning of the seventeenth century, it re- 
ceived at that time new modifications at least, 
and became more extensive. No documents have 
vet been found, entirely free from objection, in 
which formal mention is made of it before the 
year 1010. The temple of Jerusalem, and the 
strict :.i of the templers belong probably to 
the mythology of that order rather than to its 
history. Ancient statutes are found which ex- 
clude the Catholics, and confine the order to 
Protestants alene. The principles of equality and 
fraternitv amoRg the members are very conform - 
to whet we still see among several open and 
ed sects. The geographical position of Bo- 



Reformation of Luther. Z6j 

hernia and Saxony, whence came the light of the 
Reformation in regard to Scotland, England, and 
France, appears to explain the denomination of 
the east which the lodges there in general assume. 
In the state of disorder and enthusiasm in which 
nations were then placed the coincidence of opi- 
nion had become more important to individuals 
than the coincidence of country. A Lutheran of 
Bavaria was more connected with a Lutheran of 
Saxony, than with a Bavarian Catholic. The 
Swiss Calvinist, who hated the Swiss Catholic, 
regarded the French and Dutch Calvinists as his 
real countrymen. The Scottish Puritan fraternized 
with the Englishman of the same principles in 
spite of their national antipathy. The long and 
bloody wars however both civil and national which 
followed, above all in England and Scotland, fre- 
quently brought into the field against one another, 
and to the danger of mutual destruction, these 
brethren, these secret allies. Every one followed 
at a venture the colours under which chance had 
placed him. How many soldiers, zealous Pro- 
testants in their hearts, served in the imperial ar- 
mies of Ferdinand, and in those of Philip II! 
How many Calvinists in the army of the league, 
and Presbyterians in the ranks of Episcopacy ! A 
mysterious sign then was necessary to discover the 
brother to the brother in the middle of the con- 
test and carnage. It is well known that in fact 



368 Spirit and Influence of the 

the Freemasons have one destined to answer this 
end; and that single circumstance appears evi- 
dently to prove that this order belongs to the 
bloody period of the wars of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, in which many examples were seen of indi- 
viduals saved in the midst of the greatest dangers, 
even by their enemies, who upon that sign recog- 
nized them for associates and brothers. 

That state of fermentation in which the human 
mind laboured as in birth at the time when Lu- 
ther appeared, the efforts which it made in seve- 
ral directions to arrive at the light, and escape 
from the darkness of the middle ages, gave oc- 
casion to several coincident events in the reign of 
the sciences, which combined in a thousand dif- 
ferent ways both with the religious ideas of the 
time, and with the mysterious doctrine of the 
secret societies* A strange mixture of some pre- 
tended aphorisms of Hermes, Pythagoras, and 
Plato, adjusted to the Hebrew text of the books 
of the Old Testament, and of those of some 
Rabbins, had renewed the Jewish reveries known 
under the title of Cabbalism. The pupils of this 
obscure doctrine, called also by them the Her- 
metical, and Pythagorean philosophy, 8tc. pre^ 
tended to find in it the principles of universal 
science and wisdom. Reuchlin, Zorzi, Agrippa, 
reduced it to some form in the sixteenth century. 
Cardan and others joined to it judicial astrology* 



Reformation of Luther. ' 36g 

The famous Swiss, Theophrastus Bombastus de 
Hohenheim^ better known under the title of Pa- 
racelsus, a laborious chemist, united his science 
to Cabbalism, and pretended to penetrate all the 
secrets of God and nature, which according to 
him were the same thing. To find the primitive 
elements, the grand menstruum, to fix light, and 
render it subservient to his operations; in a word^ 
to find the philosopher's stone, and by it to cure 
all diseases and make gold, was the end, the 
great business of the new science, which its nu- * 
merous partisans denominated sometimes theoso- 
phy, sometimes the philosophy of fire, &c. He 
who after Paracelsus gave it the greatest celebrity 
was the famous Englishman Robert Fludd. In 
the laboratories of this sect were prepared the 
oriental ideas of magic, of apparitions, genii ; 
ideas which reigned at that period, and are not 
entirely extinct even in our days. The doctrine 
which formed the common basis of that of all 
those cabbalists, astrologers, alchemists, was the 
pantheism of the school of Alexandria; by con- 
sequence, in spite of all its deviations, a species 
of Platonism, which, as such, necessarily con- 
tended with all its powers against the famous 
Aristotelism defended by the schoolmen, and the 
principal support of the Romish theology.*- The 

* It cannot be denied that these Tlieosophists, as well as 
B B 



370 Spirit and Influence of the 

Protestant sects, therefore, hostile to Rome, fa- 
voured and encouraged in various places all those 
novelties. They introduced themselves more par- 
ticularly into those secret associations of which 
we have spoken, and which, here and there ad- 
mitted those magical persons, those makers of 
gold, &:c. Religious ideas of all sorts, from the 
most extravagant Cabbalism, to the most reason- 
able Protestantism ; the moral ideas of equality, 
fraternity, and universal benevolence; those of 
judicial astrology, theosophy, and alchemy, with 
all their relations and consequences; such were 
the elements, so various and heterogeneous, of 
which the mysterious basis of the secrets of all 
the new associations was formed. According aa 
an individual or a lodge inclined more to one or 
another of those views, his doctrine more nearly 
approached either to religious mysticism, political 
mysticism, astrology, or alchemy, &c. Mean- 
while the moral elements by degrees separated en- 
tirely from the mysteries of alchemy and the phi- 

the Protestant theologians prepared the way for Descartes in 
that fatal combat in which he engaged with the remains of the 
scholastic philosophy. It is impossible to understand completely 
the works of that philosopher, as well as those of his adversa- 
ries,, such, as Gassendi, Poiret, &c. and in general all the phi- 
losophical works of that period, if one possesses not completely, 
the key -to them in the works of the reformers, and of those of 
the followers of Paracelsus, Author. 



Reformation of Luther. 37 1 

losopher's stone. They took refuge in the society, 
so well known under the title of Freemasonry, 
which; whether its origin should be referred to a 
date prior to that of the Reformation or not, re- 
ceived from it new growth and vigour. That 
estimable society, for a long time past, since the 
religious disturbances in Europe have been quelled, 
and all sects of Christians have been admitted into 
it, has preserved of its early age nothing but a 
few mysterious forms, and a secret, which only 
appears to be used to render the association more 
close, or more enticing; and a great respect for 
the sacred books, which was the distinguishing 
characteristic of the Protestants; The remainder 
became the property of the order of the Rosy- 
crucians, which in spite of thenmposirig history of 
its pretended founder Rosenencreutz, his burial, 
and the rose surmounted with a cross which Lu- 
ther bore in his seal, owes, in all probability, its 
origin to the theologian of Wirtemberg, Valentine 
Andreae, who contributed his endeavours with 
good intentions, and afterwards withdrew them.* 

* There will appear in a little time in Germany a work of 
the learned M. Buhle, professor of philosophy in the university 
of Gottingen, which will reduce to certainty what is here ad- 
vanced concerning the Origin of masonry, and will exhibit all 
the proofs. M. Buhle read a Latin dissertation on the same 

^ :t before the royal society of sciences at Gottingen in the 
B B 2 



372 Spirit and Influence of the 

Sometimes also the religious ideas of the theo- 
sophists remained united with their metaphysics of 
pantheism with their mythology of supernatural 
beings, with their chemistry, and with their views 
of nature. Hence was produced, in some heads 
which were disposed for that mixture, the most 
eccentric, and fantastical systems. The most 
famous of those mystical theosophists was a 
shoemaker of Goerlitz in Lusatia, Jacob Behmen, 
whose writings, read with avidity, procured him a 
multitude of followers in all the north of Europe. 
Among them were some even illustrious for their 
knowledge. I will only mention the two Vanhel- 
monts, father and son, of Brussels, and Peter 
Poiret of Metz. At a very late period we have 
had Svvedenburg and the sect of Martinists, 
among whom Paracelsus and Behmen are still in 
great repute. It is certain that this Behmen, and 
some other mystics were men of extraordinary 
genius; and that some of their ideas merit as ho- 
nourable a rank in philosophy, as some of the 
discoveries of Paracelsus and of the makers of 
gold, in chemistry. If there is no great genius, 
according to Seneca, without some mixture of 



end of the year 1802 ; and there appeared an extract from the 
same piece in the literary journals of that city in January 18C % 



Reformation of Luther. 373 

madness, there is perhaps also no great madness 
without some mixture of genius.* 

Those secret societies have not however been 
without some influence on moral improvement, 
and even on the political events which have oc- 
curred in Europe since the Reformation. It was 
not therefore improper to make mention of the 
influence to which they may have been subject 
from this transaction. It is on these that some 
more recent associations have been grafted and 
modeled, of which the best known is the order 
of iiluminati, a general appellation which has 
served for a mask, and afforded pretexts to many 
villains. The object of the real illuminati was, 
as I believe, no other than to disseminate know- 
ledge, and to realize the liberal ideas of the law 
of nature, by establishing an union of energetic 
and well intentioned men, who should labour with 
all their combined powers, to oppose a system of 
obscuration leading to a second barbarity, a system 
zealously supported by certain courts. The iliu- 

* Both parts of this pointed sentence are equally foolish -, 
though the first part at least is very often repeated. " No great 
genius without a mixture of madness." — Do we read of any 
symptoms of madness in Newton, in Bacon, in Locke, in 
Milton, in Shakspeare, in Smith, in Reid? As for the last part, 
a visit to Bedlam will convince any man that there may be very 
strong madness without any genius. This is a pitiful aphorism 
which might have been overlooked, if it had not been often 
productive of the worst practical consequences. 



374 Spirit and Influence of the 

minati, during the short period of their existence^ 
neglected no means to render their views tri- 
umphant, and to make them be adopted by the 
great ones of the earth. In this respect they may 
be regarded as the Jesuits of philosophy, and the 
apostles of a political sect, whose faith is built 
upon this beautiful dream, that virtue and talents 
ought to have the pre-eminence and authority 
among men, 

Jesuits, Jansenists, &'c. 

The sixteenth century saw Luther and Loyola 
produced nearly at the same moment, the one in 
the north, the other in the south of Europe. 
The latter, a Spaniard, appears to be a natural 
product of the soil and spirit of the country 
where he was reared. A century sooner, Loyola 
would probably have only founded an order like so 
many others, a fraternity of worshippers of the 
virgin, to whom his devotion was particularly 
addressed. The religious innovations which then 
threatened the existence of the Romish church 
gave to the enthusiasm of the pious and warlike 
Ignatius another direction. He conceived the 
idea of a sort of spiritual crusade against heresy. 
His scheme was eagerly adopted at Rome after 
some hesitation; and the design was seriously 
formed of converting the new society into a for- 
midable phalanx which might be employed against 



Reformation of Luther. 375 

the boldest champions of the Reformation, To 
the re-action therefore excited by that event may 
be ascribed, as we have already remarked, the spe- 
cies of existence enjoyed by the society of Jesus. 
It will probably be satisfactory to read the words 
of Damianus himself, one of the first historians 
of the order, who thus expresses himself in his 
Synopsis Histories Soc. I. primo sceculo, printed in 
1640.* 
"In the same year, 1521, Luther, with con- 

* e< Eodem anno vigesimo-primo, adulta jam nequitia, palam 
Ecclesiae bellum indixit Lutherus : laesus in Pampelonensi arce 
Ignatius alius ex vulnere, fortiorque quasi defendendae reiigionis 
signum sustulit. 

" Lutherus Petri sedem probris, convitiisque lacessere aggre- 
ditur : Ignatius,, quasi ad suscipiendam causam, a S. Petro pro- 
digiose curatur. 

" Lutherus ira, ambitione, libidine victus, a religiosa vita 
desciscit : Ignatius Deo vocante impigre obsecutus, a profana 
ad religiosam transit. 

" Lutherus cum sacra Deo virgine incestas nuptias init sacri- 
legus : perpetuae continentiae voto se adstringit Ignatius. 

<e Lutherus omnem superiorum contemnit autoritatem : prima 
Ignatii monita sunt, plena Christianas demissionis, subesse et 
parere. 

" In sedem apostolicam, furentis in morem^ declamat Lu- 
therus: illam ubique tuetur Ignatius. 

<f Ab ea quotquot potest Lutherus avertit : quotquot potest 
conciliate reducitque Ignatius. 

" Adversus illam nitentur omnia Lutheri studia atque cona- 
tus : Ignatius suos., suorumque labores peculiari voto illi con- 
secrat. 



37 6 Spirit and Influence of the 

summate wickedness, openly declared war against 
the church. Wounded in the fortress of Pam- 
peluna, renovated and strengthened by his acci- 
dent, Ignatius raised the standard in defence of 
religion. 

" Luther attacks the chair of St. Peter with 
abuse and blasphemy; Ignatius is miraculously 
cured by St. Peter in order to become its de- 
fender. 

u Luther tempted by rage, ambition, lust, aban 
dons the religious life; Ignatius, eagerly obeying 
the call of God, quits the profane for the reli- 
gious life. 

" Luther, with the guilt of sacrilege, contracts 
an incestuous marriage with a virgin of the Lord ; 
Ignatius binds himself in the vow of perpetual 
continence, 

" Luther despises all authority of superiors; the 
first precepts of Ignatius, full of Christian humi- 
lity, are to submit and obey. 

cf lyutherus saoris Ecclesiae ritibus venerationem, cultnmque 
detraxit : Ignatius pmnem illis reverentiam asserit. 

" Missseque sacrirlcio, Eucharistiae, Dei parse, Tutelaribus 
divis, et illis, tanto Lutheri furore impugnatis, Pontificum in- 
dulgentiisj in quibus novo semper invento celebrandis Ignatii 
socioramque desudat industria. 

" Luthero illo Germanise probro, Epicuri porco, Europe 
exitio, orbis infelici portento, Dei atque hominum odio 5 etc.— = 
geterno consilio Deus opposuit Ignatium." 

(Synopsis, etc. — , LI, diss, VI. p. 18.) 



Reformation of Luther. 377 

w Luther, like a madman, declaims against the 
apostolic See: Ignatius every where undertakes its 
defence. 

" Luther withdraws from it as many as he can; 
as many as he can Ignatius reconciles, and restores 
to it. 

" All the devices and efforts of Luther are di- 
rected against it ; Ignatius consecrates to it by a 
special vow all his own labours and all those of his 
companions. 

" Luther has stripped the sacred rites of the 
church of all their venerable solemnity ; Ignatius 
studies to procure them reverence. 

i( The sacrifice of the mass, the eucharist, the 
virgin, mother of God, the guardian angels, and 
the indulgences of popes, which Luther attacks 
with so much fury, are the objects which Ignatius 
and his companions exert themselves continually 
to celebrate by new inventions and indefatigable 
industry. 

" To Luther, that disgrace of Germany, that 
Epicurean hog, that curse of Europe, that mon- 
ster destructive to the whole earth, hateful to 
God and man, &c. God by his eternal decree has 
opposed Ignatius." 

In truth, the new society acquitted itself faith- 
fully in the new service to which it was destined 
from its birth. A great number of Catholic asso- 
ciations and fraternities, to which the general 



378 Spirit and Influence of the 

movement of the human mind gave rise at that 
period, appeared arid eclipsed one another with- 
out glory, like those meteors which shine for a 
short time in the atmosphere, and leave no trace 
behind them. The society of Jesus rose above the 
horizon, like an awful comet which scatters terror 
.among the nations. While it was scarcely yet 
established it rendered important service to the 
holy see during the sitting of the council of 
Trent, and powerfully influenced the decrees of 
that assembly. The ancient orders, especially the 
mendicant, conceived great envy against those 
new comers, who set out with so much celebrity, 
and attracted all consideration, and all favours. 
This emulation redoubled the activity of all such 
as were not Jesuits, and in particular of the Do- 
minicans who wielded in a more terrible manner 
than ever the sword of the inquisition entrusted 
to their hands. The Jesuits however outstripped 
all their rivals, acquired the unlimited favour of 
the pontiffs and an immense power through the 
whole Catholic world. To them, and to the 
popes, missions were the same as colonies to the 
political governments, a source of wealth and 
power. At last this militia of the Holy See ren- 
dered itself formidable by degrees to its masters 
themselves. They discovered, as they thought, 
a secret design formed by it to secure to itself the 
universal monarchy, which it ought to have pro- 
8 



Reformation of Luther, Sjg 

cured only for the popes. Discussions followed, 
in which the society several times shewed itself 
intractable, and that it knew the value of its ser- 
vices. But let us return to the particular subject 
of this article, the influence of the Jesuits on the 
progress of knowledge. 

It has been already stated that they were put in 
possession of the principal direction of public in- 
struction in all Catholic countries. Europe had 
lasted of the tree of knowledge ; light was diffused 
on all sides and had made rapid progress. It had 
become impossible to oppose it directly. The 
most salutary expedient now was no longer to at- 
tack science, but to manage it in such a manner 
as to prevent its becoming hurtful. As the tor- 
rent could no longer be excluded, it was necessary 
to dig for it a channel in which it might fertilize, 
instead of desolating, the territory of the church. 
To well informed adversaries therefore, the court 
of Home resolved to oppose defenders equally 
well informed. To satisfy the universal desire for 
knowledge manifested by the age, they destined 
the artful companions of Ignatius. In this pro- 
vince it was that the inconceivable talents of the 
new instructors of the human species were dis- 
played. Their directing principle was to cultivate 
and carry to the highest possible degree of per- 
fection all those kinds of knowledge from which 
iiq immediate danger could result to the system 



380 Spirit and Influence of the 

of hierarchical power, and to acquire by this 
means the character and renown of the most able 
and learned personages in the Christian world. 
By means of this command of the opinions of 
men, it became easy for them either to prevent 
the growth of those branches of knowledge which 
might bear fruit dangerous to the papal power, or 
to bend, direct, and graft upon them at their 
pleasure* Thus by inspiring a taste for classical 
learning, profane history, and mathematics, they 
contrived dexterously to extinguish the taste for 
inquiry into matters of religion and state, the 
spirit of philosophy and investigation. The phi- 
losophy taught in their schools was calculated to 
excite aversion and disgust. It was no other than 
the scholastic system, reviewed and corrected by 
them, applied to present circumstances, and the 
controversy with the reformers, whose arguments, 
it may well be supposed, were always there pre- 
sented in a manner to fall before the artillery of 
the schools. With regard to the study of reli- 
gion, it was confined to the books of theology 
composed for that purpose l)y the members of the 
society, to the Casuists, and the Jesuitical mo- 
ralists. The study of the original charters of re- 
ligion was prevented; or if the gospels, and other 
pieces appeared sometimes in the books of devo- 
tion, (and this it was impossible to avoid, when 
the translations given by the Protestants were 



Reformation of Luther. 381 

public,) they were accompanied with interpreta- 
tions, and even alterations suitable to the main 
views of the society. Their great watch word 
was the utility of the sciences, and the beauty of 
the belles lettres. All that relates to the moral 
improvement, to the ennobling of human nature., 
all that relates to the philosophical and theological 
sciences, the Jesuits endeavoured, and in reality 
were enabled, to retain in oblivion ; to render the- 
ology as well as philosophy a barbarous system of 
subtleties, and even ridiculous to men of the 
world. How can it be determined to what a de- 
gree this Jesuitical mode of instruction,' which 
became the prevailing mode in Catholic countries, 
and differs so prodigiously from the mode of in- 
struction among the Protestants, modified the 
species of culture, and the particular turn of mind 
in Catholic countries, so different in general from 
what is discovered in the Protestant. From all 
this however it follows (and this consideration 
appears to me the key of the very contradictory 
judgments passed on the plans of the Jesuits m 
the cultivation of the sciences) that this society 
performed immense services to certain parts of 
literature, which it improved; but that on the 
other hand, it retained, designedly, certain other 
important parts in the dark, or so obstructed the 
avenues to them with thorns, that nobody was 
tempted to enter, Thus, .considered general- v, 



382 Spirit and Influence of the 

the instruction given in their schools, very brilliant 
in one respect, continued very dark in another, 
was a system partial, incomplete, and which set 
the mind in a wrong direction. But, as on the 
one side all was clearness, and illumination, and 
on the other all mystery and obscurity, the eyes of 
men were naturally directed to the illuminated 
side, and disdained to dwell upon the other, which 
they acquired the habit of considering as alto- 
gether insignificant. 

To model science according to the interests of the 
pontifical power, and render even science ignorant 
in all things in which it was requisite that she 
should be ignorant ; to produce some things in 
the clearest light, and to retain others in the 
thickest darkness ; to fertilize the kingdoms of the 
memory and the imagination, by rendering that 
of thought and reason barren; to form minds 
submissive without being ignorant of any thing 
but what could affect their submission ; like those 
highly valued slaves of the great men of anti- 
quity, who were grammarians, rhetoricians, poets, 
fine dancers, and musicians, and knew every thing 
except how to become free ; I cannot fear that 
I shall be contradicted by any impartial man, in 
stating that such was the system of instruction 
adopted by the Jesuits. It was ingenious, and 
inimitably adapted to the end they had in view. It 
was calculated to form illustrious, and elegant au- 



Reformation of Luther. 383 

thors, learned men, orators, good Roman Catho- 
lics, Jesuits, if you please, but not Men in the 
full acceptation of that term. He who became a 
man under their management, became so inde- 
pendently of that management, and in spite of it.* 
Besides 3 if the system of papal infallibility, and 
of blind submission to the Apostolic See, was in- 
compatible with reason and with the progress of 
knowledge (which no moderate Catholic at present 
makes any difficulty in acknowledging) must we 
not regard, as the most pernicious thing which 
could happen, the existence of a learned society,, 
which proposed to itself, as the sole aim of its la- 
bours, to make reason and knowledge themselves 

* This is one of the secrets of the society, for it too had its 
secrets. It had its signs, its degrees, its apprentices, and its* 
masters. If it existed legally and openly, this was because its 
principles suited the authority which protected them. It found 
itself, from its very nature, opposed to the society of free- 
masons, to that of the illuminati, &c. which it attacked with 
all its might. Formerly, when the Jesuits highly triumphed,, 
the free-masons concealed themselves, and met together by 
stealth. Things are now remarkably changed. The free- 
masons have hardly any secrets which an enlightened public 
does not share with them 5 their society exhibits itself freely 
and openly • that of the Jesuits,, on the contrary, conceals its 
feeble remains from the public eye in almost every part of 
Europe, and has become, in reality, a secret society of Anti- 
illuminati. We may decide which of the two ages has the 
better spirit, that in which they displayed, or that in which 
they conceal themselves. Author, 



384 Spirit and Influence of the 

operate to the consolidation of a system hostile to 
reason and knowledge? If an ignorant Franciscan 
delivered from the pulpit transalpine propositions^ 
the danger was not great, and he might easily be 
refuted; but w T hen the learned and ingenious 
Jesuits of Clermont declared before all Paris, That 
the Pope was as infallible as Jesus Christ himself 
and when they employed all their knowledge and 
talents to inculcate that doctrine, and make of it 
an article of faith,* the danger then, it must be 
acknowledged, became imminent; and the ideas 
of man ran the hazard of being irrecoverably per- 
verted. As nothing can be more fatal to the li- 
berties of a people than a despotism which renders 
itself amiable and plausible ; nothing too is more 
calculated radically to deprave the minds of men, 
than artfully to contrive to make lies appear to 
them true, and absurdity reasonable.-^ 

* See what the celebrated Arnaud wrote on this occasion, 
tinder the title of The new heresy of the Jesuits, Author. 
P + Nothing can be more important than this disclosure of the 
plan adopted by the Jesuits in the cultivation of literature, and 
of its consequences. The reflections are profound, as well as 
just j and throw light on a great many remarkable differences 
found between the Catholic and Protestant people in Europe. 
The difference here remarked between the effects upon the 
mind by the study of philology, criticism, rhetoric, of the ma- 
thematical and physical sciences, and those produced by the 
study of the moral sciences, of the faculties, the duties, and 
the rights cf man, and the order of his affairs in society is a 



Reformatidn of Luther. 385 

It may easily be conceived in what manner the 
Universal employment and the pretensions of the 

circumstance of the most interesting nature. The first has a 
tendency to amuse and delight, but it leads to no discovery of 
the abuses of society, and to no impatience under them. It 
has a tendency perhaps to polish the mind, to give it the com- 
mand of trains of fine imagery and expression, and one de- 
partment of it, the mathematical and physical, to produce in- 
ventions and discoveries important for the accommodation o 
animal life. But it does not elevate and strengthen the mind 
like the study of the moral and political sciences. It renders 
not the reasoning faculty penetrating, active, and bold. It 
carries not the mind to observe the affairs of man in the world, 
the modes in which they are conducted, and the means by 
which improvement in them might be effected. This explains 
the difficulty with which the speculations of our best authors in 
this country, as Smith, for example, in political, and Reid in 
intellectual philosophy, come even to be understood in France, 
a country which stands so high in polite literature, and the ma- 
thematical sciences. It explains too in a great measure the 
various speculative excesses into which the promoters of the re- 
volution ran. Their minds had not been accustomed to pro- 
found and accurate reflection on the great interests of humanity. 
They were capable of catching up a particular theory, and of 
becoming inflamed by the thought of it, because this required 
no previous discipline. But they were incapable of trying the 
theories presented, by an extensive comparison with human 
affairs. The ideas of the economists, a political theory, 
founded perhaps on the most extensive comparison of circum- 
stances of all that had been presented to Frenchmen, were still 
only a theory, founded on a partial view of human affairs, and 
which hardly ever made any proselytes out of France. I will 
■add, because I believe it to be true, though I shall perhaps only 

Cc 



386 Spirit and Influence of the 

Jesuits raised envy and enemies to them among 
all classes of the people. They desired to be the 
preachers, the theologians, the defenders of the 
holy see^ and they found themselves in collision 
with the Dominicans, and almost all the other 
religious orders ; they wanted to direct the con- 
sciences of men, particularly those of princes, 
and of all persons who had influence in the poli- 
tics of courts, and they exasperated courtiers and 
ministers : they wanted to engross the direction of 
education and of public instruction, and they 
raised against them the ancient universities, the 
masters and professors of all the schools which 
they did not succeed in ranging under their autho- 
rity. It is far from doubtful that the powerful 
competition of the Jesuits, the erection of their 
new schools, their plans, their writings, and still 
more their covert machinations, were the secret 
poison which then corrupted the universities of 
France, which made them languish, decline, and 
at last fall into that insignificance which placed 
them far below those of the Protestant countries. 

subject myself to the reproach of national partiality, that th© 
great difference between the English and Scottish universities at 
present consists in this, that in the English attention is chiefly 
directed to philology, criticism, and the mathematical sciences, 
and in the Scottish to the moral and political sciences. This, I 
think too, sufficiently appears in the works which we have re- 
ceived from the authors produced by the two nations during 
the last fifty or sixty years. 



Reformation of Luther. SBf 

The most formidable enemies to themselves 
whom the Jesuits raised* and the most capable of 
opposing them, were the Jansenists. They fancied 
they saw* in the pains taken by those others to 
propagate and recommend the doctrines of St. 
Augustin concerning grace* a plan to bring down 
the society whose principles were not consistent 
with those of that father of the church. But 
whatever may have been the secret design of the 
partisans of Jansenius with regard to the Jesuits, 
it is not the less true that all this controversy 
concerning grace was immediately produced by 
the religious quarrels which flowed from the Re- 
formation. That terrible shock which had sepa- 
rated from the Romish church a great part of the 
Christians of the West, had shaken that church 
herself to the very foundation, and had left within 
her a leaven and principles of fermentation not 
soon to be purged off. The spirit of inquiry, of 
chicane and controversy, was also awakened within 
her. The greater part of Catholics would have 
been happy to see certain reforms in the church 
herself* certain amendments and regulations with 
regard to doctrine and discipline, which were not 
produced, or not in the manner which they de- 
si red. There were many discontented Catholics. 
Many abuses attacked by the Protestants appeared 
to those Catholics extremely reprehensible ; and 
several 'points of doctrine controverted by the 

€02 



38S Spirit, and hifluence of the 

former, had induced the latter to think. The 
council of Trent had satisfied scarcely any body but 
the people beyond the Alps. What concerned 
the rights of the Pope and the hierarchy was there 
carefully settled; but some essential points of 
doctrine were still left in a painful state of uncer- 
tainty; as that of grace, for example, which held 
so important a place in the systems of the Luthe- 
rans and Calvinists. Baius, a theologian and pro- 
fessor of Louvain, who had been a member of the 
council, brought the subject under discussion, 
and occasioned considerable noise in his time. 
After him Janseniu?, a professor in the same uni- 
versity of Louvain, followed the same errors, 
wrote his book intitled Augustinus, was the friend 
of the Abbe de St Cyran, and some other leaders 
of the party, which was called the Jansenist party 
from his name. It is well known how many illus- 
trious defenders this party produced, of whom 
Port-royal became the principal seat. The war of 
opinions which was lighted up between the Jan- 
senists and the Jesuists was the most violent which 
ever raged within the church. The Jansenists- 
who id reality had so many opinions in common 
with Luther and the other reformers, and were 
most heartily adverse io the pretensions of Rome, 
atfd of the Jesuits, the satellites of Rome, dreaded 
above all things the reproach of heresy, which 
wis liberally bestowed upon them. It became, vti 



JZefor mation of Luther, 3 89 

some measure, a point of honour with them to 
write vigorously against the Protestants, in order 
to give striking proof that they were as good Ca* 
tholics as their adversaries. At the same time 
they wrote at least as vigorously against the Je- 
suits, and acquitted themselves in this essential 
office, con amore, with still more eloquence than 
in the other. As the Jesuits had entered the lists 
of science and genius with the Protestants, their 
adversaries the Jausenists aspired in like manner 
to shew themselves superior to the Jesuits in 
those very respects in which the Jesuits excelled. 
They composed grammars, books of education 
and piety, treatises of logic, morality, history, 
erudition.* The names of Lancelot, Arnauld, 
Tillemont, Nicole, Pascal, Sully, <kc. are immor- 
tal as the memory of the services which they 
rendered to the sciences, and to French literature. 
It was to arrive at this result that I allowed 
myself to deviate into the preceding digression, 
which has appeared, perhaps, to carry me too far 
from my subject. Jf, however, vye consider that 

* It is curious to observe in those books, when one reads 
them attentively, and is acquainted with the literary history of 
the time, how they are interspersed (even such of them as ap- 
pear the least adapted to this species of controversy, as gram- 
mars and the like) with hints against the Jesuits, against their 
classical books, their method of teaching, &c. though they are 
never named, or openly pointed at. Author. 



39b Spirit and Influence of the 

the society of the Jesuits became what it was only 
because the Popes endeavoured to make it a coun- 
terpoise to the Reformation, a body of troops 
always capable of resisting it, and preserving the 
security of the Holy See; we shall, no doubt ac- 
knowledge that this society ought to be reckoned 
among the important effects of the Reformation, 
as well as the principal events of which that so- 
ciety was the cause, and the opposition to which 
it gave occasion. Without the Reformation there 
would have been no Jesuits; and without the 
Jesuits no Jansenists or Port-royal. Now to this 
rival ship with one another, and to the activity of 
mind which it produced, we owe a multitude of 
valuable works which appeared during the seven- 
teenth century, works by which our language, 
and French prose, in particular, acquired a rich- 
ness, a flexibility, and a perfection, which it was 
far from possessing before that time. Controversial 
writings moulded over language to all the forms of 
argumentation, gave it precision, force, and accu- 
racy. I need only name the Lettres Provinciates, 
and the Cleanthes of Barbier-d' Aucour, and I need 
not fear contradiction. All these literary events, 
in which we are so deeply interested, are inti- 
mately connected with the great event of the Re- 
formation ; and it is not a thread which I have 
arbitrarily employed to connect them together; I 



Reformation of Luther. 39 1 

have only followed with fidelity the natural series 
of historical facts. 

The Jesuits continued, even to the time of their 
destruction, to act always a principal part in all 
religious and ecclesiastical, and often in political 
contentions. Jealous in China and Japan of the 
missionaries who belonged not to their society, 
the enemies in Europe of the learned and modest 
fathers of the oratory, who gave them offence, 
they produced the discredit of the missions, the 
condemnation of father Quesnel, and other dis- 
orders which belong to our present subject only by 
the connection which they have with learning, 
and by the works to which they gave occasion. 
Under this point of view we must yet mention the 
disputes raised with the mystics of the seventeenth 
century, at the head of whom appeared the Abbe 
de Ranee, Madams Bourignon and Guyon, and 
particularly the noble and pious Fenelon, whom 
this circumstance involved in a very sharp contro- 
versy with Bossuet. The name of those two illus- 
trious adversaries are sufficient reason for placing, 
among the events of some importance in literature, 
that quietism about which they disputed, a doc- 
trine belonging more perhaps to philosophy than 
to theology, and not entirely disconnected either 
with the dissensions of Jansenism, or those of 
the church in general since the Reformation. 



3Q2 Spirit and Influence of the 



A Reflection concerning the uses made of the Wealth 
of the Church. 

It is sufficiently evident that the administration 
of the finances is the object which governments 
esteem the most worthy ofall their attention ; and the 
most important purpose to which they commonly 
think that the finances of the state can be turned 
is w;ar; to attack or defend; to overawe their 
neighbours by a formidable army constantly on 
foot, by fortresses and arsenals. In all this there 
is nothing but what is very laudable. War, how- 
ever, is not the sole end of man in society. 
Every war itself has peace for its object ; and 
peace has that of furnishing to the citizens of every 
state the means of unfolding all their moral and 
productive powers. Study and knowledge, which 
direct the efforts of men in improving and enno- 
bling all the constituents of their nature, are 
therefore, in the last result, the final object of the 
labours of finance, of war, and of peace. But 
in this case, as in many others, the means take 
precedence of the end. What treasures are 
lavished on war; what pittances are allowed for 
the promotion of study! 

In what order of things, in what age, in what 
country of the earth, could the cultivation of the 
sciences be more favoured than in a Catholic 

1 



Reformation of Luther. ZQ3 

country? Without any new expence to be cle-» 
frayed by the established government, any new 
taxes to be paid by the people, there is found an 
entire east of rich citizens, whom their destination 
withdraws from all the professions of civil life, 
who are dedicated to a contemplative life, and to 
that leisure which they might render learned and 
useful. A multitude of lucrative places, instead 
of being given to idle persons, might ensure a 
succession of active men devoted to the sciences. 
Every monastery, provided with an opulent li- 
brary, might, instead of pious drones, contain 
retired students, whose labours would belong to 
the state. If the Spanish nation, for example, 
were so disposed, it might with ease transform 
the whole body of its superstitious clergy into an 
army of students and philosophers. This at last 
would consecrate to the spirit what has been so 
long consecrated to the senses; and who knows 
how much a legion of this kind, peopling the 
chapters and abbeys, relieved from matins, but 
not from labour, or study, or meditation, would 
produce in ten years to be added to the general 
stock of knowledge.?— This is not altogether a 
dream. It has been seen what could be done by 
a congregation of St. Maur, an oratory, a Fort-r 
royal, &c. By the good, and even by the evil 
which these have done, let any one judge what 
they might have done^ if moved by a power di-j 



3 §4 Spirit and Influence of the 

reeled solely to the promotion of knowledge! 
And how often has literary merit been rewarded by 
our kings with a bishopric; how many men of 
letters by means of a priory, or a benefice, have 
lived in France above dependence, and been enabled 
to devote themselves to labours which have en- 
lightened and honoured the nation! Under the 
modest title of Abbe, and with no other distinc- 
tion than the tonsure they became in reality the 
priests of the temple of science. From Amyot 
to the author of Anacharsis, what honour and 
glory have been derived to the title of Abbe ! It 
has been given to a multitude of eminent men, 
who probably would have remained obscure and 
inactive without that portion of the wealth of the 
church by which they were animated, and enabled, 
with minds free from care, and at ease, to pursue 
their important labours. 

The revolution has, among us, dried up this 
productive spring, which might have been ren- 
dered so useful to the progress of knowledge* 
Several Protestant states have preserved some 
means for the encouragement of learning. In 
Sweden and England some ecclesiastical dignities 
remain, which the sovereigns generally give to men 
respectable for their knowledge.* More than one 

* It is probable that M. Villers overrates the effects of the 
ecclesiastical riches in England in encouraging literature. It is 
no doubt true that the more eligible stations in the church are 



Reformation of Luther. SQ5 

archbishop of Upsal or York, more than one 
bishop of Abo or Chester, &c. stand high in the 
ranks of literature. Holland, Switzerland, and 
Germany, are not so well provided with those 
honourable and lucrative posts for men of letters, 

seldom bestowed without some regard to the literary qualifica- 
tions of the candidate j sometimes, perhaps, those qualifications 
may even form the principal recommendation. But no person, 
who wishes to speak the truth, will say that literary qualifications 
upon the whole have the principal influence, or any thing like 
the principal influence, in regulating the appointments of the 
church j and it is certainly the opinion of very few people in 
England that literature is much promoted by the application of 
them. If we consider the great proportion which churchmen 
bear to all the well-educated people in the country, the great 
advantages which their situation, above that of almost any 
other class of men, affords for the prosecution of learning, and 
the small proportion which the works of churchmen bear 
among the literary productions of England, we shall be pretty 
strongly confirmed in the same opinion. In fact the chief en- 
couragement to literature in England arises from the appro«» 
bation of an enlightened public. But this is no doubt attended 
with the inconvenience complained of by Villers in Germany, 
that authors are thus tempted to write much, rather than to 
write well $ and fewer persons are induced to engage in the li- 
terary profession, from the smallness of the rewards to be de- 
rived from their labours. It has not certainly for a good many 
years past been the system of government to encourage litera- 
ture. This has not been the spirit of the men at the head of 
afFairs. It has now become a proverb in England, and not with* 
out reason, that the booksellers are the best patrons of learning. 
If there be any exception to this rule it is the editors of London 
newspapers, who are sometimes pretty liberally rewarded. 



SpO Spirit and Influence of the 

The wealth of the church was there employed 
chiefly in establishing universities and other 
schools ; whence the greater number of authors 
in those countries are professors, with very mode- 
rate salaries, of the principal or other schools, 
who, often burthened with numerous families, lay 
some stress on the rewards of authorship; and are 
by that motive often tempted to write hastily that 
they may write much. 

Recapitulation of Cue Effects of the Reformation in 
regard to the Progress of Knowledge. 
The human mind was delivered both from the 
external constraint imposed upon it by the hierar^ 
■chical despotism, and from the internal constraint 
which it endured from -the apathy of a blind su~ 
perstition. It escaped suddenly from a state of 
tutelage, and began to make a more free, and, by 
consequence, a more energetic and a juster use 
of its faculties. The documents of religion, the 
charters of the hierarchy, were subjected to a 
severe and profound criticism, and as the study of 
the sacred books, of the fathers, of councils and 
decretals, is connected with that of antiquity, his- 
tory, the languages, the line productions of Greece 
and Rome, all those great branches of classical 
literature were entirely new modeled, and pre- 
sented in a new and more brilliant light. The 
scholastic philosophy, the support and ally of the 



Reformation of Luther*, 307 

ancient system, met with formidable adversaries in 
the innovators, who unveiled its errors, and at- 
tacked its weak sides. The torch of reason which 
the scholastic edifice held concealed began to 
shine. The vain science of the casuists vanished 
before the morality of the Gospel, which was laid 
open to the perusal of all Christians. The human 
intellect having no longer before it the obstacles 
which impeded its march during the course of the 
middle ages, unfolded all its activity, examined 
the foundations of shaken institutions, discussed 
the rights of people and governments, and of the 
state and the church. This activity made its 
happy influence be felt in all the departments of 
human knowledge; and the spirit of investigation 
inspired by the Reformation led to the path of 
philosophical discovery, and the highest specula- 
tions in the sciences and arts. D'Alembert has 
sketched this picture with the hand of a master, 
and by a single stroke. " The middle of the 
sixteenth century," says he, " beheld a sudden 
change in religion, and in the system of a great 
part of Europe. The new doctrines of the re- 
formers, defended on one side, and attacked on 
the other, with that ardour which the cause of God, 
well or ill understood, is alone able to inspire, 
equally obliged their defenders, and their oppo- 
nents, to acquire instruction. Emulation, ani- 
mated by this powerful motive, rapidly increased 



39 3 Spirit and Influence of the 

all kinds of knowledge; and light, raised from 
amidst error and dissension, was cast upon all 
objects, even such as appeared most foreign to 
those disputes."* 

The long, multiplied, and destructive wars, to 
which this commotion gave birth, retarded some 
of the effects which naturally would have flowed 
from it. The moral culture of nations, which 
was about to take a new flight, made for a short 
time a retrograde movement. The souls of men, 
however, tempered by misfortune, resumed their 
energy, and that immortal spirit, which had been 
awaked, displayed all its activity. Long it wan- 
dered in the false paths of theological controversy, 
from which at last it returned more alert and vi- 
gorous for the contest. Meanwhile the necessity 
felt by the different parties of attracting the peo- 
ple, and acquiring popularity, produced the culti- 
vation of the vulgar languages; multiplied in 
them valuable works; and the French, English, 
and German prose, was fashioned, polished, and 
enriched, amidst the disputes of sects^ and the 
shock of religious opinions. 

Particular associations were formed, or corro- 
borated on the different sides, both for attack and 
and defence; some mysterious and persecuted, 
others open and privileged. The order of Jesuits* 

* Elements of Philosophy, I, 



Reformation of Luther* 3{jg 

the most important of all, was placed in opposition 
to the Reformation. It acquired a preponderance 
proportioned to the enormous mass which it was 
intended to counterbalance. Carried along by the 
torrent of the general spirit, this order, which 
should have supported only the hierarchy and the 
logic of the schools, contributed by itself, and by 
its powerful adversaries, the Jansenists, to the 
progress of knowledge. It fell when the time ar- 
rived at which it was necessary to give place to in- 
stitutions more conformable to the new age. 
Thus, by its own direct action, and the re-action, 
which it produced, did the Reformation accom- 
plished by Luther hurry the European nations 
forward in the career of knowledge and intellec- 
tual improvement. 

Conclusion. 

Such are the principal effects which, in my 
opinion^ have flowed from the influence produced 
on Europe by the Reformation of Luther. In 
examining the complicated causes of all the more 
considerable transactions during the lapse of three 
centuries, both in the political and literary worlds, 
it is difficult to escape error, not to be deceived 
with regard to some causes, and not to lose sight 
of some effects. Amid the confusion of all those 
embarrassed trains of things in the politics and 
intellectual improvement of Europe, the man who 



400 Spirit and Influence of the 

tries to discover those which are immediately con- 
nected with the quarrels in religion, what care 
soever he employ?, incurs the danger of being 
often deceived. Some of them are connected 
with the establishment oi Christianity itself, with 
the preaching of the alcoran, with chivalrv, with 
the crusades, the use of artillery, the discovery of 
the new world, the revival of letters, the institu- 
tions of Peter the first, the war of the succession, 
and other great events. Were any one to examine 
the influence of any of those events, perhaps he 
would challenge, as belonging to it, some of the 
consequences which I have ascribed to the Refor- 
mation. The historians who deliver facts are 
commonly silent with respect to causes, and in- 
deed often know nothing about them. The wri- 
ters of the opposite parties are exclusive, and 
render the truth uncertain. Whether should we 
believe the Catholics or the Protestants, Duperron 
or Dumoulin, Platina or 3 lorn ay ? How should 
we decide between Varillas and Maimbourg on the 
one side, Sleidan, Eayle, and Seckendorf, on the 
other, between Paliavicini and Fra -Paolo, between 
Bossuet and Claude : The one class behold no- 
thins: in the work of the Reformation but a 
source of infinite error? and calamities; the other 
nothing but illumination and happiness to the 
human race. In the midst of so many different 
opinions a man must have his own. We are now 



Reformation of Luther. 401 

■-'in better circumstances than ever to judge of a 
revolution which happened three hundred years 
ago. Let us consider what was before it, what 
has been after it: let Us hear all parties, look 
around us, observe what is now, and judge. 

When 3 after the long sleep of the European 
nations and of their reason during the middle 
ages, we fix our eyes upon the condition of the 
human species in that fine part of the world in the 
fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, we behold them awake from their lethargy, 
rise, move restlessly in all directions, seize instru- 
ments for their activity, forge new ones, mak$ 
trial of them, unfold their powers, take possession 
of the field of science, throw off the swaddling 
clothes which embarrassed them, and enter upouj 
a new epoch. How decisive events and inven- 
tions crowd upon one another during this interval! 
The fortunate application of the magnet, the te- 
lescope, printing, the taking of Constantinople, 
the new World> the depression of the great vas- 
sals of the crown in France, the golden age of 
poetry and the arts in Italy, the erection of nu- 
merous schools, the books of the ancients re- 
vived, the establishment of posts which facilitated 
communication^ the famous peace of the empire 
and the imperial chamber, the exorbitant increase 
of the Austrian power which terrified Europe, 
and obliged it to take arms, Copernicus by whom 
D D 



402 Spirit and Influence of the 

the celestial system was reformed, Luther and 
Loyola, who appeared nearly at the same time! It 
was necessary that the crisis should come to an 
end, and the state of things undergo a change 
both in the structure of civil society, and in the 
system of human knowledge. 

TAe better is the enemy of the good, says a pro- 
verb of modern Italy. This ridiculous adage 
which never ought to have come out of the lan- 
guage in which it was originally produced, is a 
lively and ingenuous expression of the transalpine 
character. Happily it is not in the power of a 
degraded cast, or an unnatural maxim, thus to 
manacle the destinies of science and civilization. 
Mankind pass on, and pay very little attention to 
clamours like these, the clamours, says Chenier,* 
of those lazy and jealous minds, whose stationary 
reason would paralyse human thought. None of 
the institutions of the middle ages was now 
adapted to the new state of human affairs. As 
lances and shields had been laid aside on the ap- 
pearance of fire arms, the logic of the schools 
was necessarily displaced by the new arms of rea- 
son, the inextricable circles of Ptolemy by the 
simple idea of the motion of the earth ; and the 
false decretals, fell to the ground at the first touch 

* In his Discours sur le pf ogres de connaissances. An. 9, 
impr. chez Didot, 



Reformation of Luther. 403 

t>f criticism. The external form of religion no 
longer suited the new state of improvement, any 
more than the representation of the mysteries 
suited the Stage on which Corneille and Moliere 
were about to appear, or the gothic architecture 
the same place with the church of St. Peter. 
Every thing was under the necessity of changing. 
The new spirit could not exist in the ancient 
forms; a correspondence, an harmony was neces- 
sary to be established between it and things ; and 
as it possessed all the energy of the morning, the 
omnipotent power of youth, it operated in all di- 
rections with force and efficacy, and every where 
under the aids of enthusiasm. 

Under this point of view then it is that we 
ought to regard the Reformation ; as a necessary 
product of the new age, as a manifestation of the 
new spirit. What Dante and Petrarch were in 
regard to poetry, Michael Angelo and Raphael to 
the arts of design, Bacon and Descartes to phi- 
losophy, Copernicus and Galileo to astronomy, 
Columbus and Gama to geography, the same was 
Luther in regard to religion. Those eminent 
men, the organs of the universal spirit, expressed 
correctly the thoughts which brooded in the 
minds of a great number of their cotemporaries ; 
and they satisfied at once the wants of their age. 
From their genius as soon as the spark escaped, 
the flame, ready to appear, broke forth in all di- 

D D 2 



404 Spirit and Influence of the 

rections. What had only been an immature, a 
vague conception, floating privately in the minds 
of a multitude of men, became clear and steady, 
made an open appearance, was communicated 
from intellect to intellect, and an uninterrupted 
chain united all thinking minds together. Such 
is the natural progress of that tacit conspiracy 
which presides over all reformations. Those 
which take place in the dominions of the arts, and 
in most of those of the sciences, disconnected 
with the passions and volcanic eruptions of the 
people, are generally accompanied with peace, and 
accomplished without costing tears to humanity. 
Different was necessarily the fate of that produced 
by Luther. Religion was not then a matter of 
simple opinion, a purely moral being. It had an 
immense corporal organ, which oppressed all bo- 
dies politic, and had pretensions to all the thrones, 
and to all the possessions in the world. By the 
very first wound which it received the Colossus 
trembled, and the earth was shaken by its motion. 
Princes and nations ran to arms, and gave them- 
selves up to a terrible conflict; a conflict of opi- 
nions and interests, the consequences of which 
were so various, and so important. 

The Institute required an account of such of 
those consequences as have had an influence on 
the political situation of the states of Europe and 
on the progress of knowledge. This task was 



Reformation of Luther* 405 

enormous, and far superior to my powers. What 
would the undertaking have been, if besides its 
political and literary effects, the Institute had di- 
rected an account to be given it also of the influ- 
ence of the Reformation on the morals of the 
European nations, and on their religious faith and 
character? This new inquiry however will form 
perhaps the subject of a labour more extensive 
and difficult than mine. Me it behoved to con- 
fine myself within the appointed limits, which in- 
deed comprehend a field sufficiently vast. It has 
been my intention to disguise neither the good nor 
the evil produced by the Reformation. I have 
only endeavoured to prove, that after every thing 
has been compensated and the final balance struck, 
the effects of that revolution present a surplus of 
good to the human race ; and that on the whole 
it ought to be ranked among those important 
events which have most powerfully contributed to 
the progress of civilization and knowledge, not 
only in Europe, but in all parts of the earth to 
which the Europeans have carried their improve- 
ment. 

I have also considered myself at liberty to ex^ 
press myself with all the freedom of an historian^ 
who, if it were possible, ought to belong to no 
age or country ; encouraging myself by this re- 
flection, that no prejudice had admission into the 



406 Spirit and Influence, &c. 

sanctuary of the sciences; and that an illustrious 
society endowed with the spirit of philosophy so 
far as to choose this subject, and to call for thQ 
truth, was undoubtedly disposed to hear it. 



A SKETCH 

OF 

THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 

FROM ITS FOUNDER 

TO 

THE REFORMATION; 

Intended as an Appendix to the Essay on the Spirit and 
Influence of the Reformation of Luther; 

BY CHARLES VILLERS, 
1804, 



A SKETCH 

OF 

THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH; 

OR, 

d short view of the principal events which have 
concurred in establishing the doctrines, and re- 
gulating the constitution of the Christian churchy 
from its Founder to the Reformation. 



FIRST PERIOD.- DEMOCRACY. 

(From Jesus to Constantine, — the year 1, to the 
year 325.) 

The first Christians form a religious society, dis- 
tinct from all others. This society becomes gra- 
dually an organized body. The system of equality 
prevails at first, and gives place afterwards to an 
hierarchical system of subordination. 

AFTER a duration of eight hundred years Rome, 
which had long been free, had recently submitted 
to the rod of a master. She had carried her arms 
and conquests around her in the circumference of 



410 A Sketch of the 

an immense circle which reached almost the boun-r 
daries of the known world. But the powers of 
the republic dispersed over so vast an empire be- 
came enfeebled at the center; and a monarchical 
power had there usurped its place. Caesar was the 
author of this revolution, and founded in Rome a 
reigning dynasty. After him Augustus ruled the 
empire. He had reigned forty years, when Jesus 
was born at Palestine of obscure and indigent pa- 
rents. 

The mythology of Paganism, calculated for the 
infancy of the world, had grown old along with 
it. At the period of which w T e speak, it had lost 
its ancient credit in the minds of men, and th« 
vacuum left by it only wanted to be filled up. 
Alexander, along with his conquests, had carried 
the cultivation of Greece into the east. And 
from the time that his successors had erected 
thrones filled by Grecian princes in Egypt, in 
Persia, in Syria, in Asia Minor, in Armenia, the 
Grecian philosophy had flourished in those coun- 
tries, and modified their local character. This 
had felt re-action in its turn; and the mystical 
theism of India, the two principles of Persia, and 
the mysteries of Egypt were united to the doc- 
trines of the Academy, and the Portico. This 
new mixture of ideas produced a fermentation. 
The principal tendency of all those elements, in 
other respects sufficiently heterogeneous, w r as to^ 



History of the Church. 411 

wards the acknowledgment and worship of an in- 
visible God. Polytheism, the adoration of gross 
and visible deities., was gradually and necessarily 
undermined by this operation of thought among the 
more enlightened people. In this situation the 
Romans found Greece and Asia, when they next 
took possession of them ; and the men and spirit 
of the east the conquerors found after them in the 
west. The literature and philosophy of the 
Greeks became the basis of instruction among 
the Romans, and produced, with some modi- 
fications,, the same effects as in Greece and 
Egypt. The ancient worship was despised, the 
augurs officiated, not without a smile on their 
countenance. Deism brooded in the schools of 
Rome,, as in those of Athens, Smyrna, and 
Alexandria. Bat this speculative doctrine wanted 
a substantia] form, by which it might receive a 
practical and positive existence, and by which it 
iiiigbt become a religion. 

It is necessary to remark that the Mediter- 
ranean was then the great sea, the common do- 
main, of the nations which constituted the Ro- 
man empire, and their medium of communication. 
Trie shores' by which it was surrounded made all 
the people who inhabited them citizens in some 
measure of the same country, Athens,- Joppa, and 
Rome were nearer ; e -mother than places se- 
parated by a very in .: le distance en land. 



412 A Sketch of the 

The commerce of the world which was carried 
on that sea, and all the movements which were 
directed towards Rome, made communication on 
it easy and rapid. 

On one of the coasts of this sea, in the center 
of the empire founded by the Macedonian con- 
queror, on the territory of the ancient Phenicia, 
in contact with Egypt and Arabia on the south, 
with Persia and India on the east, on the north 
with Syria, Armenia, and the nations of Scythia, 
and by its ports with Greece, Italy, and the other 
maritime countries, lived a people, small in num- 
ber, despised, repeatedly overthrown and subdued 
by their various neighbours, hating all other na- 
tions from principle, commercial and industrious 
by necessity, the agents of Asia and Europe, 
spread every where, but never mixing with stran- 
gers, and forming in every place a society sepa- 
rated from others, in which they preserved their 
laws, their worship, and their temples. This 
people had a national religion founded upon the 
worship of one God, In the midst of Syrian, 
Egyptian, Greek, and Roman polytheism, theism 
was here formed into a positive religion ; a phe- 
nomenon without a parallel in the vast empire of 
the Caesars. I need not say that I speak of the 
Jews. Proud of their origin, which they carried 
back to illustrious patriarchs, united together by 
the ties of one blood, exclusive objects of the 



History of the Church. 413 

favour of God,' and chosen by him from among 
all the nations of the earth, they were assured by 
ancient prophecies that among them would arise a 
king of the world, who would wash away all 
their reproach, and raise them above the rest of 
mankind. They lived in the impatient expecta- 
tion of this Messiah, and calculated eagerly the 
time, obscurely signified, of his appearance. A 
similar spirit at that time existed not among any 
people. They, gloomy, confined to themselves, 
full of the pride with which their more than ter- 
restrial nobility inspired them, and wounded by 
the degradation in which they were constrained to 
live, consoled themselves by the one feeling for 
the other, and returned a hundred fold to their 
idolatrous neighbours the contempt which they 
received from them. This deep rooted disposition 
has not yet perished, and the unbending Israelite, 
degraded every where in his universal captivity al- 
most to the rank of the brute, says in his heart, 
" I am the man of God." 

It was natural, considering the state in which 
the minds of men then were with regard to the 
unity of the divine being, and a purer worship 
due to him, that the philosophers, and men of 
thought and leisure, who during the tranquillity 
of the long reign of Augustus had become very 
numerous, should bestow some attention on this 
people, on its doctrines and books, of which there 



414 A Sketch of the 

existed a Greek translation. The eyes of mankind 
then began to be directed towards them. In the 
cities of the empire where the Jews had erected 
synagogues, many Pagans frequented their assem- 
blies, from a still stronger motive than curiosity.. 
The Jews, on their part too, could not elude the 
operation of the general spirit of the times. If 
their ideas began to penetrate into the schools, 
the ideas of the philosophers penetrated also into 
the synagogues. Jews were found who shone as 
philosophers among the Pagans, especially at 
Alexandria, which was then the seat of the new 
academy, and moreover the greatest city in the 
neighbourhood of Judea. These innovations 
made their way even within the walls of Jeru 
salem. The theosophy of the eastern magians 
entered the same place. People began to dispute 
to refine, and to think of modifying the Jewish 
orthodoxy. Hence sects arose which violently 
opposed one another. Many Jews, examining 
their religion more closely, found in it what the 
Pagans had found in theirs, too many external 
forms, too many accessories, too many supersti- 
tions and abuses. Some of them desired a re- 
former, others a Saviour to deliver them from 
this crisis. To Jewish minds this, in either case, 
could be no other than the Messiah himself. The 
expectation of this supernatural being then was 
more enflamed than ever. Flocks of impatient 



History of the Church. 415 

people quitted the eities and went to hear preachers 
and prophets in the desert. John baptized and 
preached on the banks of the Jordan. He an« 
nounced too the Messiah; and the number of his . 
followers was considerable. 

In the midst of this people, and in the midst of 
these circumstances Jesus appeared. He carried 
away the disciples of John, and the rest of the 
multitude, and the other prophets were silenced. 
He preached with the tranquil majesty of a mind 
invested with a superior mission, and which had 
no other business on the earth, but that of esta- 
blishing truth, piety, and love among mortals. 
Serious and circumspect in his actions, ingenuous, 
simple and sublime in his discourses, his mind ap- 
peared calm, transparent, and profound as the ether 
of heaven. Supremely mild and benevolent, a 
holy zeal against impiety and vice could alone 
move or affect him with passion for an instant, 
Thus is Jesus described to us by his four histo- 
rians. If he was not such, undoubtedly we must 
admire the genius of those who imagined so fine 
a picture, and still more the happy chance by 
which the same picture presented itself exactly to 
four evangelists who, in ail probability, could not 
each copy from the other. But if he was such, 
as it is .impossible to doubt, what then was the 
nature of this extraordinary being, who resembles 
none- of the great personages represented to us in 



41 6 A Sketch of the 

history, and whose life, without blemish and 
without affectation, exhibits not one of the weak- 
nesses of human nature? 

Jesus, during the few years of his public mi- 
nistry, sowed the imperishable seeds of a doctrine 
of pure adoration, of love and justice; or rather 
he only sanctioned and vivified those seeds natu- 
rally sown in every heart. And w r hat is not less 
wonderful and extraordinary than his whole mis- 
sion and character is that a Jew, a member appa- 
rently of a nation unparalleled for its selfishness, 
its exclusive spirit, and its enmity to the rest of 
mankind, first presented the notion of an uni- 
versal religion, of a church for the human race, 
of a fraternity of all men under the authority of a 
common father. — One father, one family, one 
service, one love; this idea was miraculous in that 
age; itw 7 assoin a much greater degree produced and 
established in Judea. Jesus offered it as his only 
precept; explained, and applied it to every case. 
He gave charge to his apostles, plain, unlettered 
men, to go and diffuse it among all nations, de-> 
claring to them that every where its effects would 
be great. They go, they speak, and the world 
becomes Christian. Jesus meanwhile, pursued 
by the fanaticism of the priests of the ancient 
law, was the same amid executioners and torments 
which he had been in the midst of his disciples, a 
pattern more than human of patience and firm- 



History of the Church. 417 

liess, of mildness and sublimity. cc Father," said 
he, praying for his executioners, " father, forgive 
them, for they know not what they do." This 
last proof was wanting to enable him to offer a 
practical example of the most difficult virtues. 
After this, nothing more remained for him to do: 
all was finished, to use his own expression; and he 
died the noble death of a martyr to truth and 
virtue. — This picture of the pure spirit of Chris- 
tianity in the person of its Founder cannot appear 
misplaced in an attempt to appreciate a revolution, 
the principal object of which was to restore 
Christianity to the spirit of its institution. 

After the death of Jesus a great number of his 
disciples met at Jerusalem, there celebrated to- 
gether and in his name the Jewish festival of Penti- 
cost, and thus formed the first community of Chris- 
tians. This feeble church was soon after almost 
entirely dispersed ; when in the course of two years 
fanaticism again pursued them, and Stephen, the 
deacon, that is, the depositary of the alms, became 
its victim. This blow, perhaps, would have been 
mortal to the new church, if at the same time a 
man full of that spirit which vivifies, of that force 
and courage which surmounts every thing, Paul, 
hitherto a persecutor of the Christians, had not 
joined their cause. This new apostle, who alone 
did more for the infant faith than all the rest 
together, called upon all the men of every country 

Ee 



41 8 'A Sketch of the 

and of every religion to become the followers of 
Christ. Jews only had as yet entered into that 
association, to the members of which was given 
the name of Nazarenes. Paul, into his eloquent 
sermons, introduced new ideas, new prospects. 
He announced the doctrine of the Founder with a 
spirit which did not and which could not belong to 
the other disciples, more attached to Judaism, and 
more fed with its prejudices; a circumstance, which 
even at that early period produced among Chris- 
tians a division ; between his partisans, and 
those who remained attached to the peculiarities 
of Judaism; whence it was found necessary to 
have a general meeting to come to a mutual un- 
derstanding. This assembly, the first image of 
councils, was held at Jerusalem, and lasted till the 
subversion of the Hebrew commonwealth. That 
event dispersed it. But from that time Judaism 
and Christianity, between which St. Paul had 
drawn an eternal line of distinction, remained 
separate. His travels, his discourses, his letters, 
some of which have come down to us, established 
in most of the churches which were founded 
during his life-time, that sublime doctrine, modi- 
fied by him, and preserved to us by his indefati- 
gable zeal. In less than forty years after the 
death of Jesus, all his first confidents had pe- 
rished, either by a natural death, or the hands of 
the executioner; and there remained only the 



History of the Church. 4 1 Q 

apostle John, who, flying from the persecution 
under Domitian, took refuge in Patmos, where 
he wrote the apocalypse, which has been placed 
in the number of the sacred books, (if indeed it 
be really his.) Already arose among the Chris- 
tians, persecuted by the princes of the earth, 
those disputes concerning doctrines, which essen- 
tially belong to all speculative systems, whether 
philosophical or religious. These internal maladies 
of the church appear to have created more appre- 
hension to the apostle of Patmos than the external 
evil of persecution. Cerinthus, and some others, 
even then denied the divinity of Jesus ; and al- 
most all the writings of John are directed against 
that opinion. Meanwhile the number of Chris- 
tian churches multiplied every day, and in every 
country. A peaceful state of things would per- 
haps have confined for ever the religion of Christ 
to the walls of Jerusalem. But the Jews them- 
selves, who at first expelled the innovators, by 
that measure compelled them to go and preach in 
other places. Almost every where those exiles 
met with other Jews, whom commerce, and the 
restless spirit of that people, had so universally 
dispersed. With them the Jewish Christians 
coalesced, and preached in their synagogues, 
attended by numbers of pagans, who, as we 
have already remarked, were attracted by the 
spectacle of a new worship, founded upon the 

E E2 



420 A Sketch of the 

adoration of one God. The Romans, by de- 
stroying Jerusalem, and dispersing the Jewish 
people, added still more to the favourableness 
of those circumstances. Great cities, such as 
Alexandria, were peopled with Jews, and by con- 
sequence also with Christians. The new doctrine 
became a subject of interest and discussion. Pa- 
ganism, too absurd in itself, to suit those ages 
which were removed from the infancy of the 
world, and decried by the philosophers, had become 
an object of ridicule among all enlightened men. 
Such, no doubt, was the true cause of the cessa- 
tion of oracles about this time. They became 
silent, when all men began to disbelieve them. 
The want of a religion capable of replacing the 
ancient, which was perishing through age and im- 
becility, began to be felt. Besides, as the Gods 
were national patrons among the ancients, every 
nation had respected its own Gods so long as it 
had continued a nation. Vanquished and en- 
slaved by the Romans, the people became indif- 
ferent to all the objects of local patriotism, and to 
religion as well as the rest. The Romans them- 
selves, by the effects of receiving foreign Gods 
into their temples, were nearly prepared to despise 
them all, the old as well as the new. Every thing 
positive in religion had fallen to ruin in the em- 
pire. The religious spirit, which serves for the 
foundation to all positive systems, was yet alive, # 



History of the Church. 421 

and only waited for a new form in which it might 
fix itself. Christianity, favoured by the circum- 
stances which have just been pointed out, presented 
itself, and found a welcome reception. But how 
many foreign ideas and adventitious doctrines 
came to be mixed with it, and modified it in a 
thousand ways ! — The history of doctrines in the 
first ages of the church is a labyrinth in which the 
honest historian can never find his way. Before 
a system of doctrines was ascertained and estab- 
lished, what fluctuations and changes had they 
not undergone ? x\nd when at last a dogma was 
settled, how different was it from what had been 
in the mind, and in the simple views of the 
author of Christianity? — It was more particularly 
at Alexandria, at that time a very learned city, 
and the chief seat of the Grecian philosophers, 
among others of the new Platonicians, that the 
religion of Jesus, to which so many heteroge- 
neous elements had been added, assumed a form 
more speculative, or if you will, more mystical, 
than it had as yet displayed. To this, Clement, 
a Grecian philosopher, who had become a Chris- 
tian, more than any one contributed. Such of 
the Orientals as embraced Christianity introduced 
into it the views of the Oriental philosophy con- 
cerning the origin of the world, of good and 
evil. Hence arose the forms of Christianity and 
the sects called Gnostic and Manichean. AI • 



422 A Sketch of the 

though the other Christians afterwards separated 
from the system of their doctrines those of the 
Oriental Christians, these latter doctrines, how- 
ever, have not failed to influence, to a certain 
degree, the subsequent constitution of Christi- 
anity in general, and they have remained more or 
less unaltered among the Oriental Christians. It 
would be superfluous to name all the different 
opinions which arose in different places during 
those early ages, opinions of which the greater 
part are known by the names of their authors, or 
by the characteristic term, which became the 
watchword of the sect. The names would here 
form an insipid vocabulary, and to explain them 
would require too much time. It is sufficient to 
observe in general, that when a certain majority 
of Christians, favoured by circumstances, began 
to form a common system of faith, they gave the 
name of heresy to every opinion different from 
their own. 

Another circumstance is worthy of remark, that 
the persecutions of some emperors against Chris- 
tianity in general induced many individuals of 
these different sects to fly into solitary and unin- 
habited places, carrying thither nothing but their 
fervent devotion, which became quickly inflamed 
to an extraordinary degree by the silence and 
gloom of the desert. These ascetics of the The- 
baid and Syria were the first monks; their meet- 



History of the Church. 423 

ings to pray together the first convents. Legis- 
lators arose among them who affected to give to 
Christian people none but laws truly Christian. 
So many monastic regulations are in fact only so 
many different modes of explaining Christianity, 
of purifying and reforming it. The monastic 
orders greatly changed their form according as the 
church altered hers, but they were nothing else in 
the beginning. 

The same persecutions which peopled the desert 
with fugitive Christians constrained those who 
remained behind to unite more strongly together, 
to extinguish as much as possible their contro- 
versies, to accommodate their differences, to assist 
one another, to organise themselves, to frame a 
police, and appoint leaders, and managers. So 
long as the apostles and first disciples, the cotem - 
poraries of Jesus, lived, they naturally acted as 
the heads of the communities or churches which 
they founded. After their death, the people re- 
placed the pastor whom they had lost by his most 
eminent disciple. Several of these churches united 
sometimes together, and formed a sort of a con- 
federacy, when they appointed for themselves a 
common head, a visitor, episcop, or bishop; then 
they separated to remain by themselves, or to 
unite with others. In general they voluntarily 
confined themselves within the limits of a pro • 
vince, of a prefecture, or diocese of the Roman 



424 A Sketch of the 

empire. Every christian, however, was a disciple, 
an active member of the church or confederacy to 
which he belonged. The pastors were their spi- 
ritual magistrates, republican magistrates, whose 
decision in matters of faith had no force but 
because they were reckoned wiser, and better in- 
formed. Meanwhile, as those Christians and 
those pastors were men, and as men, without in- 
tending it, are always influenced by human institu- 
tions and ideas, it happened that those pastors to 
whom local circumstances gave a church of un- 
usual importance, riches or power, those churches, 
among others, which were established in the prin- 
cipal cities of the empire, were soon invested with 
superior consideration and authority, with a sort 
of supremacy, the origin of the patriarchal or 
papal system. This primacy, at first, was ex- 
tremely limited. The Roman emperors had as 
yet known the new religion only to tolerate or 
persecute it. When it reached the mind of Con- 
stantine, who raised it to the throne, every thing 
was changed. Temporal power, honours and 
riches, became the lot of the principal pastors ; 
the humble doctrine of Jesus, formed to console 
and to support by the hopes of another life those 
who lived in oppression on the earth, became the 
doctrine of the great men, and the oppressors. 
According to the sect, or the particular opinion 
of the theologian who got possession of the ear 



History of the Church. 425 

of the master, he made the sects and opinions 
.which were contrary to his own be condemned 
and persecuted. Christianity, so essentially mild 
and humane, became persecuting in retaliation, 
from imitation, and because it had been perse- 
cuted. The cruel examples of Diocletian, Decius, 
and other emperors, produced a re-action of which 
the terrible effects remained to a late period in 
modern ages. The passions of men were the 
cause of so many evils. Let no one accuse of 
them the pure doctrine of Jesus, to whom man- 
kind owe the worship of one God, the sublime 
principle of love and fraternity among men, the 
abolition of slavery in several places, and so many 
other inestimable benefits. 

Thus is this first period, beginning with Jesus, 
who came to promise the kingdom of heaven to 
the peace makers, terminated by Constantine, 
who assigned terrestrial riches to the followers of 
Jesus, and laid for them the foundation of a 
kingdom in this world. 



i'lQ A Sketch of the 



SECOND PERIOD.— OLIGARCHY. 
(From Constantine to Mahomet, — 325 to 604.) 

Establishment of the Patriarchal System. 

1 HE Christian community now assumed a new 
form, and displayed new operations. The supreme 
authority had become Christian, and it impressed 
pn every thing connected with that title a tempo- 
ral character of power and credit. The chief 
pastors took their station near the throne. He 
who filled it was their disciple, their ^protector, 
sometimes their instrument, at other times their 
despotical master. The events, and the doctrines 
of Christianity became objects of public interest. 
The church acquired a certain unity by combining 
with the unity of the empire ; and the commotions 
-which arose in it were felt more universally under 
the new organization, which closely united all its 
parts together. Heresies, and new opinions ex- 
cited a more general fermentation. What before 
agitated only a city, or a province, became an 
object of discussion to the whole Roman empire. 
The assemblies of the pastors {synods according 
to the Creek term, councils, according to the 
Latin) obtained a form more authoritative and 



History of the Church. 42J 

Imposing. Their decrees became laws of the 
empire, sanctioned by him who was its head. 
Already the partisans of the bishop Donatus had 
been condemned by the council held at Aries. 
But the first heresy of importance, which made 
trial of the strength of the church combined, was 
that of Arius, a philosopher of the new Platonic 
school, and a priest of Alexandria. It was by 
this school that the idea was introduced among 
the Christians of regarding the Christ, the son 
of God, as his Word. The bishop of Alexandria 
would have this Logos, this word, to be co-eternal, 
and consabstantial with God. Arms, who on 
other accounts disliked the bishop, and who had 
been a candidate with him for the bishopric, 
maintained on the contrary that the Logos, pro- 
ceeding from God, could not be co- eternal and 
consubstantial with him. This debate kept the 
Christian church in flames during; several centuries 
both in the east and in the west. Constantine as- 
sembled the famous council of Nice, the first 
which received the name of ecumenical, or uni- 
versal. Arius was condemned in it; but this hin- 
dered not the Arians from triumphing afterwards 
on several occasions, and from various causes. 
Here too was composed against their doctrine the 
famous symbol of faith, which has since been at- 
tributed to the apostles; which bears however but 
too distinctly the marks of the polemical subtlety 
X 



428 A Sketch of the 

of this period. Among the other regulations of 
the same assembly is likewise to be remarked that 
which appointed a fixed day for the celebration of 
Easter by all Christians. Meanwhile the bishop 
who was the adversary of Arius died, and his place 
in Alexandria was filled by the deacon Athanasius. 
This personage, like his predecessor, was a zea- 
lous supporter of the Nicene orthodoxy ; but had 
the misfortune Soon to behold the fickle Ccesar 
change his creed. Eusebius, a bishop of the 
Arian party gained over the sister of the emperor, 
and she persuaded her brother. Arius was so- 
lemnly re-instated in the communion of the church 
by an imperial decree, and Athanasius was deprived 
of his see. It was this same Eusebius, who a 
little before Constantine's death, administered to 
him the sacrament of baptism, which he had till 
then neglected to receive. Undoubtedly, if he 
had lived longer, Arianism, which the address of 
Eusebius had made the doctrine of the imperial 
court, would have become the ruling doctrine of 
the Christian world. But he died ; his three sons 
divided the empire between them ; and each pro- 
tected a different party. The votaries of the coun- 
cil of Nice, whose system was fixed by an inva- 
riable formula, remained firmly united. The Ari- 
ans, as happens to all reformers, whose too liberal 
opinions cannot be bound by an irrevocable form, 
broke into so many different sects, that they be** 



His terry of the Church. 42§ 

came weak, and were unable to resist, in detail, 
their united antagonists. Semi-arians were seen 
opposing Arians, and Pneumatics opposing Euno- 
mians. Every party rallying under its Ccesar, the 
religious became a political and national animosity. 
The more keenly Constans supported the Niceans 
in the west, the more ardour Constantius exhibited 
in the east on the side of Arianism mitigated by 
Eusebius. The general council which the two 
emperors convened in Bulgaria to reconcile the 
two parties had no other effect than that of ex- 
asperating the hatred between the Nicene bishops 
and those of the party of Eusebius, as usually 
happens when enemies are brought together, who 
are irreconcileable by the opposition of their in- 
terests, and the heat of their passions. After the 
murder of Constans, his brother, remaining sole 
master of the empire, procured splendid triumphs 
to his beloved Arians, among others in the two 
councils of Sirmium, where Photinus the bishop 
of that city was condemned. A multitude of 
sects, which Constantius laboured without inter- 
mission to extinguish or keep down, troubled the 
whole course of his life, and he died amid the 
tumult which they raised on all sides. Jlis suc- 
cessor Julian, far from seeking, like him, to ap- 
pease them, took delight in setting them on, en- 
couraged them, ridiculed them in his palace, and 
in public treated them with the most grave irony. 



436 A Sketch of the 

He could not have chosen a more certain plan to 
ruin the Christian church which he disliked. The 
Nicene bishops immediately assembled in council 
at Paris, and declared all the Arian bishops apos- 
tates. Athanasius, returned from his exile, and 
reseated on the throne of Alexandria, resolved to 
make it a point of conscience to eject all of those 
apostates who were within his jurisdiction. Lu- 
cifer, bishop of Cagliari in Sicily, went still far- 
ther than the council of Paris. He blamed se-^ 
verely the amnesty which it granted to the Arians 
who should submit to sign the formulary of Nice; 
and separated from those lukewarm Catholics who 
consented to allow persons who had been heretics 
to remain among them. Julian however reigned 
too short a time to see the success of his artful 
politics. The two principal parties, the Nicene 
and Arian, supported themselves with equal powers 
under the two succeeding emperors, Valens, and 
Valentinian ; the latter protecting the first party 
in the West, the former the second in the East. 
Valens, a decided Arian, employed all his power 
in eradicating Semi-arianism, as well as Catho- 
licism from the provinces under his dominion. 
His zeal too was seconded by the death of Atha- 
nasius, and afterwards by that of Valentinian, in 
whom the Nicene creed lost its firmest defenders. 
At the same time tills profession itself gave birth 
to a new, and a very dangerous and active enemy. 



History of the Church. 431 

The bishop Apollinaris, a man of a subtle and 
philosophical mind, advanced an opinion concern- 
ing the word incarnate in the person of Jesus, 
which, according to him, served only as a living 
organ to the word, a vehicle entirely passive; and 
this opinion was the cause of a violent fermenta- 
tion and schism. Finally, under Gratian and 
Theodosius the Great, Catholicism rose victorious 
by the protection of those two princes. They 
employed every expedient to reduce the Arian 
doctors to silence, and that system would then 
have received its mortal blow, if an unexpected 
asylum had not presented itself. New actors ap- 
pear on the stage of the world, and from the un- 
known regions of the north come to dispute with 
the Cassars the government of the empire. The 
Goths advance to the frontiers of the empire; 
they become Christians, but under the Arian 
creed; and among them it was this sect fled to 
seek refuge from the ruin which appeared inevi- 
table. 

Meanwhile the Nicene faith became every day 
stronger in the empire. Theodosius, its sole 
master during fifteen years, (for who would count 
the short and feeble reigns of Gratian and Valen- 
tinian II ?) elevated the clergy to a high degree 
of power and credit. By him a bishop was ren- 
dered a personage still more important than ever. 
Those of the bishops^ to whom circumstances 



432 A Sketch of the 

had given a certain supremacy over others, ac* 
quired a peculiar degree of importance; and the 
most eminent of all, those of Rome, Constanti- 
nople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, who 
assumed the title of patriarchs, of fathers, or 
popes, came by degrees to be considered as the 
princes and heads of the Christian church. Lifted 
up higher than others, to each of them the am- 
bition only remained of raising himself higher 
than his colleagues. Those of Alexandria, An- 
tioch, and Jerusalem, too distant from the center 
of power, could not attain a preponderance suffi- 
cient to answer this end. The palm, it is evident, 
could only remain in dispute between the two pa- 
triarchs whose chairs were placed in the two capi- 
tals of the empire by the side of the two thrones 
of the East and the West. The talents, the ad- 
dress, the ambition, the virtues, of those who 
successively filled those two chairs, the favour of 
the princes, their predilection at one time for 
new, at another for old Rome, a multitude of 
circumstances which belong to the history of the 
empire as well as to that of the church made the 
balance incline sometimes to one side and some- 
times to another. If the patriarch of Constanti- 
nople had for him the more constant residence of 
the emperor, he had also against him the vicinity 
of the court, which permitted not a priest to 
elevate himself too high. The bishops, who at 
■ 3 



History of the Church. 433 

that time observed the duty of residence within 
their dioceses very ill, and abounded in the capi- 
tal, often intrigued against the patriarch of whom 
they were all jealous, and sometimes were able to 
humble him. The Roman pastor on the other 
hand was more delivered from the fear of this in- 
convenient and dangerous presence of the imperial 
majesty, and of the intrigues of the court. He 
had for him the mighty name of Rome, before 
which the nations were so much accustomed to 
bend. It is well known that the translation of 
the government to Constantinople had only the 
the effect of weakening it, and that this second 
Capital never acquired the importance of the first. 
The patriarch of Constantinople then found him- 
self only a subordinate person in a city regarded 
as itself subordinate ; whilst at Rome his rival was 
left to represent the principal character in the first city 
of the world. To this let us add that the people 
who subdued Rome and the West became Christi- 
ans, whilst those who subdued Constantinople 
and all the east, established in it the religion of 
Mahomet. What wonder then, if the bishop of 
Rome, aided by a skilful and persevering policy, 
gained the victory over all the rest ? — The magic 
of the name of Rome has fascinated almost ail 
ages, and it has come down even to ours without 
having lost entirely its charm. 

But these reflections have anticipated the course 
Fp 



434 A Sketch of the 

ofevents; and the bishops and patriarchs yet formed 
an oligarchy, in which no one was legally subject to 
the authority of another. The laity and priests stilt 
preserved their rights, and the patriarchs yielded sub- 
mission to the authority of the council, diet, or parlia- 
ment of this republican church. Let us resume the 
series of the principal facts. Basil, surnamed the 
Great, bishop ofCesarea, supported by his rare talents 
and by his writings the ISIicene faith, while Theo- 
dosius supported it by his edicts. One of these 
declared, " That no persons should be considered 
as Catholic christians but those who would con- 
fess with Damasus, bishop of Rome, and Peter, 
bishop of Alexandria, the consubstantial and 
eternal divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit. Whoever should refuse should be re- 
garded as an heretic and a madman, and be de- 
livered over to the secular arm." Gregory of 
Nazianzen, then patriarch of Constantinople, and 
the friend of Basil, approved of this rigour with re- 
luctance; and if he did not loudly blame it, this 
undoubtedly arose from the hope of seeing it re- 
store that peace and harmony so much to be de- 
sired in the church. But that hope was vain. A 
second imperial edict, which interdicted from the 
public exercise of their worship all Christians but 
those of the Nicene profession, produced no better 
effects. A second ecumenical council was resolved 
to be assembled, from which a cure was expected 



History of the Church. 435 

of all the evils which afflicted the church. The 
place of convocation was fixed at Constantinople. 
The new council confirmed, and still more pre- 
cisely defined, the doctrine of one GoD in three 
persons, and the consubstantiality of those per- 
sons. The imperial authority sanctioned those 
decrees, made them be received publicly as the 
symbol of Catholicism, and denounced corporal 
punishment upon all who should think otherwise. 
After having thus fettered the liberty of opinion 
and the sectarian spirit among Christians, Theo- 
dosius betook himself to the pursuit of the re- 
mains of Paganism, which no longer found any 
adherents but among the lowest classes of the 
people. This passion was much more easy to ex- 
tinguish than that which animated against one 
another the Christian theologians. In spite of the 
edicts of the emperors controversies sprung up 
every moment, The inflexible obstinacy and fury 
of the antagonists, the hatred they bore to one 
another, produced excesses at which the church 
was made to blush. The noble Priscillian was the 
first illustrious victim who afforded the spectacle 
of Christian blood shed by the knives of Christi- 
ans. Two bishops, unworthy of that title, pur- 
sued him furiously before Maximin, the tvrant of 
Gaul: his knowledge and his virtues could not 
save him from destruction, etnd he was sacrificed 
for his opinions by the sacerdotal hatred of two 
ff2 



436 A Sketch' of the 

men, in whom Christianity beheld its Anitus and 
Melitus. 

So many theological disputes and subtle opi- 
nions, among which the original simplicity of the 
Christian worship had disappeared, began to fatigue 
the minds of the people, who could no longer 
follow their pastors in the discussion of dogmas, 
Under the two sons of Theodosius, the barbarians 
in different quarters penetrated into the Roman 
empire, carrying with them ignorance, devasta- 
tion, and war. The quarrels of religion within; 
the Goths, the Huns, Swevi, Vandals, and Bur- 
gundians, without; these were circumstances suf- 
ficient to throw Christianity entirely into the 
darkest ignorance. The ecclesiastics remained 
the sole depositaries of knowledge. It was in the 
east more especially that controversy had raged* 
There is one general characteristic which distin- 
guishes the two churches, and which their history 
hardly in any instance contradicts; that in the 
east where the minds of men are more contem- 
plative, and more enthusiastic, all controversies 
in general turned upon doctrines; while in the 
west, where the mind it seems is more directed to 
solid and temporal things, hardly any disputes 
arose except about rank and pre-eminence. There 
articles of faith, here articles of discipline and 
church government, were disputed. The patri- 
archs of Rome who found themselves invested 



History of the Church. 437 

with the primacy in the West carefully cultivated, 
or rather planted this disposition. The true 
maxim of that throne was to turn to advantage 
every circumstance, whether political or religious, 
for the aggrandisement of its power and dignity. 
More than once it happened that while the good 
Orientals were ingeniously disputing about some 
mystical questions, the Roman pontiff enjoyed 
the triumph of being erected judge over his col- 
leagues of Constantinople or Alexandria; as hap- 
pened to Anastasius the First, on the occasion of 
the disturbances produced by the Origenists. 

About this time the priest Hieronymus (whose 
name we disfigure by calling him Jerome,) a man 
of great capacity, lived sometimes at Rome and in 
Greece, sometimes in Syria and at Jerusalem, 
which gave him an equal knowledgeof theHebrew, 
Greek, and Latin languages; sometimes in a de- 
sert, at other times in the court of the Roman 
patriarch, or among the ladies of Rome, to whom 
he delighted to teach the doctrines of the church. 
He gave a translation of all the scriptures into 
the vulgar tongue, which forms at present the 
basis of what is called the vulgate version. It is 
with pain, and not without some doubts con- 
cerning the purity of his Christianity, that we 
behold him among the most eager persecutors of 
the eloquent patriarch John Chrysostom. -About 
the same time another priest, named Rufinus^ 



438 A Sketch of the 

translated the books of Origen, of Josephus, of 
Eusebius, and promoted in the West the study of. 
ecclesiastical history. His translation of the first 
of these authors raised a violent persecution againt 
14m. At this period also flourished the celebrated 
doctor of Hippo, Augustin> the champion of Ca- 
tholicism, and the real inventor of the subtle 
dialectics of the theologians. The sects of Do- 
natists and Pelagians occupied at first his activity. 
Afterwards he engaged in the refutation of the 
system of predestination, and of that of the Ma- 
nicheans, of which he had originally been a de- 
fender. He was still disputing, teaching, and 
writing, when the invasion of the Vandals, who, 
under Genseric, came to besiege Hippo, accele- 
rated his death. This people, as well as their 
king, were Christians of the Arian sect. Before 
the death of Augustin, however, a new quarrel 
inflamed the eastern church. Nestor, the patriarch 
of Constantinople, aided by the priest Anastasius, 
advanced and maintained that Christ being at 
once God and man, it w 7 as of Christ, as he was 
a man, that Mary was the mother, and not of 
Christ, as he was God. (i For," said he, " it 
is absurd to suppose that a human creature, such 
as Mary was, can have borne God." Accordingly 
he called the Virgin the mother of Christ, the 
mother pf the son of God, but he refused her 
ihe title of the mother of God. In all other re- 

2 



History of the Church 43 g 

spects he adhered to the Catholic faith of Nice 
and quarrelled not even with the single personality 
of Christ. It is very difficult to conceive the 
degree of animosity to which this unfortunate war 
of vain subtleties was carried. It became a ques- 
tion whether in Jesus should be recognized one 
nature in one person, or two natures and two 
persons. The court, the empire, the bishops, 
all classes of Christians were agitated by this 
subject to the most extraordinary degree. The 
third of the councils denominated ecumenical, 
was convoked at Ephesus, where the boisterous 
Cyrillus, at the head of one party, the Nestorians 
on another side, and a third and middle party* 
anathematized one another with a scandalous fury. 
The monk Eutyches, the confident of Cyrillus, 
who, during the sitting of the council, had so 
powerfully contributed to the condemnation of 
Nestorius, saw himself ten years afterwards con- 
demned at Constantinople by another council for 
having denied the human nature of Christ. 
These discussions were prolonged, and varied 
without end. The ruling church, which called 
itself universal, adopted the opinion of the two 
natures; an opinion which was solemnly conse- 
crated in the fourth ecumenical council, which 
was held at Chalcedon, and in which the Roman 
patriarch, Leo the Great, had by his legates the 
satisfaction to see both his primacy and his doc- 



440 A Sketch of the 

trine acknowledged.* The monophy sites, or the 
defenders of the one nature, were far however 
from thinking themselves vanquished; and the 
dispute became only the more hot. Leo died 
without seeing it terminated; and six years after- 
wards one of his successors, Simplicius, beheld all 
Italy conquered by barbarians. Odoacer, king of 
the Heruli, put, within the walls of Rome, a pe- 
riod, before his eyes, to the empire of the West. 
The throne of Augustulus was overthrown, and 
the pontifical chair, which then was the second in 
rank, became by this means the first in the opinion 
of the Romans and of all the nations of the West. 
♦ The controversy concerning the single or double 
nature of Jesus, concerning his single or double 
personality, was the cause of the separation of the 
two churches, the eastern and the western, the 
Greek and Roman. The irritation of men's 
minds had become incapable of cure; and the 
famous decree, known under the name of the 
Henoticon, which Zeno the Isaurian framed with 
a view to reconcile the two parties, only accele- 

* The fathers of the council gave as the ground of this pri- 
macy, that of the city of Rome in the empire j Dia to Basi- 
leuein ten Polin, §c. See the twenty-eighth canon of that 
council 5 which in all other respects declares the patriarch of 
Constantinople equal to that of Rome, and places him in the 
second rank, only because Constantinople was considered as but 
the gecond capital in the empire, Author. 



History of the Church. 441 

rated the schism, and rendered it more conspi- 
cuous. This Zeno dishonoured the imperial 
throne by his debaucheries and excesses ; and what 
was beheld upon the throne, was as usual only a 
specimen, a more conspicuous instance of what 
was practised every where. The public morals had 
become as different from those of the first Chris- 
tians as the doctrine of the theologians was be- 
come different from that of the apostles. 

The blow which the Roman pontiff had just 
sustained by a separation which confined him to 
his patriarchate of the West, where he was ha- 
rassed and threatened by so many Arians, was a 
little compensated by the conquest made about 
this time of the king of the Franks, Clovis, 
whom his wife, a zealous Christian, a great battle 
which he believed he gained by a miracle, and the 
bishop Remi, converted to the Romish faith. 
Since the baptism of that barbarian prince, the 
powerful empire which he founded, has remained 
devoted to the patriarch of Rome. However 
during those early ages the pious submission of 
princes was not so great as to prevent Clovis in 
Gaul, and Theodoric in Italy, from treating pa- 
triarchs, bishops, and priests, with considerable 
roughness. 

About the year 518, Justin, emperor of the* 
past, who had some reasons for wishing to humble 
$.he patriarch of Constantinople, who advanced 

a 



442 A Sketch df the 

his pretensions too much at will, conceived the 
idea of reconciling the two churches, in order by 
this means to confer the primacy upon the Roman 
pontiff. But he only succeeded in some detached 
measures, which raised to a height the animosity 
of the Oriental church. We may here observe 
an instance of what we stated above, that the vi- 
cinity of the imperial throne at Constantinople 
was as fatal to the dignity of the patriarch of that 
city as the distance of that throne was favourable 
to the patriarch of Rome. Justinian, who suc- 
ceeded Justin, followed his errors in regard to the 
preference shown to the western Catholicism above 
the eastern ; and by his impolitic and rash measures 
drove an immense number of his subjects to des- 
peration. Among the Christians of the Grecian 
empire was seen renewed what had already been 
seen a century and a half before, and what was 
seen among the Calvinists of France on the revo- 
cation of the edict of Nantz; The Monophysites, 
urged by persecution, fled beyond the limits of the 
empire, and peopled Abyssinia, Nubia, Persia, 
and Armenia. Several patriarchs established them-, 
selves in those countries, and there have remained 
independent even to our times. The great leader 
of the JVfpnophysites of the East, during that 
disastrous period, was a monk of great activity 
earned Jacob Baracbeus, who was the soul of the 
party, who organized, and separated it for . eye? 



History of the Church. 443 

from the rest of the church, and established 
bishops and a patriarch at Antioch. From that 
time the Christian church was divided into three 
great parts, the Romans, the Greeks, and the 
Jacobites, each of whom had their pastors, and 
maintained no communion with the rest. The 
last, peculiarly hostile to the Greeks, were, half 
a century afterwards, of powerful assistance to 
Mahomet and the Caliphs his successors. 

What Basil had done for the monks of the 
East, Benedict undertook with much more suc- 
cess, and with much sounder views, for those of 
the West. He became the founder of the order 
of Benedictins, to whom society and the sciences, 
as well as the Romish church, have been under 
so great and so numerous obligations. The rules 
of Basil have produced only ignorant and fanatical 
Genobites. Those of Benedict have produced a 
multitude of useful men, who have not only cul- 
tivated a part of Europe, but have courageously 
carried knowledge and civilization to the most 
.barbarous countries. A part of Gaul, of England, 
and Germany, was civilised by them, and delivered 
from a gross idolatry to embrace a purer and 
milder religion, which commands men to Jove one 
another, and to adore their Creator. The ignc*- 
rance of the eastern monks contributed not a 
little to preserve among them the spirit of party 
#ud division; as the severe subordination too of 



4U A Sketch of the 

those of the West contributed perhaps to the 
obedience towards the head of the church, which 
was gradually established among them. 

Justinian, to whose reign we owe the fine code 
of laws which bears his name, and the Reforma- 
tion of the calendar by Dionysius the Little, has 
not merited so well of religion as of jurisprudence 
and chronology. He nourished and fomented an 
unfortunate quarrel, which arose concerning three 
chapters of the acts of the council of Chalcedon. 
The feeble Virgil, who occupied the chair of 
Rome, was ordered to Constantinople by the em- 
peror, on purpose to condemn the three unfor- 
tunate chapters. Virgil, wavering between the 
respect which he owed to a council and the obe- 
dience which he owed to the emperor, declared at 
first in favour of the chapters, afterwards con- 
demned them, then retracted, displeased allparties, 
and was at last banished. This only proves that 
the Popes at this period were still completely sub- 
ject to the authority of the emperors. When 
Justinian had, by the valour of the famous Beli- 
sarius, re-conquered a great part of Italy, he 
established at Ravenna a superior officer of the 
empire, under the title of Exarch, whom the 
bishops of Rome obeyed as the lieutenant of the 
emperor. The Gothic kings and other barbarians* 
when they found themselves masters of the city 
of Rome, treated the Popes as their subjects $ 



History of the Church. 445 

they even sent them frequently to negociate for 
them at Constantinople. Even then, however, 
the immense pretensions of that See began to be 
exhibited. Pelagius, who filled the chair about 
the end of the sixth century, disputed with John, 
surnamed the Faster, patriarch of Constantinople, 
the title of ecumenical or universal bishop. The 
same, after Pelagius, did Gregory, sirnamed the 
Great. The Popes at that period beheld almost 
at one and the same time the arms of Belisarius 
employed in the West for the extirpation of the 
Arians; and the king of the Goths, Ricaredus; 
the king of the Swevi, Theodomir, in Spain ; and 
Aigilulf, king of the Lombards, who had already- 
penetrated victoriously into Italy, enter into the 
Romish communion. The Anglo-Saxons, them- 
selves, who since the invasion of England had 
there almost extinguished Christianity, soon fol- 
lowed complaisantly their king Ethelbert, who 
became a Roman Catholic by the persuasion of 
the eloquent Augustin, a Benedictin friar. 

Thus ended the second period, in which we be- 
hold the progress and establishment of the patri- 
archal system. The bishops of the great cities 
endeavoured to raise themselves above the rest as 
soon as the first dignities of the church became 
employments of profit and honour. So long as 
the church was militant, her humble pastors, 
strangers to ambition, were only distinguished 



446 A Sketch df the 

from one another by their piety. When she be- 
came triumphant the face of things changed. 
Intrigue and favour disposed of places ; and man- 
ners became dissolute. St. Jerome, who so well 
knew Rome and the practices of her clergy, 
paints them in odious colours in several of his 
writings, and constantly denominates that city 
Babylon. 



History of 'the Church. 44? 



THIRD PERIOD— MONARCHY. , 

(From Mahomet to Hildebrand— 604 to 1073.) 

The Authority of the Romish See becomes predo- 
minant in the West, both in spiritual and in 
temporal Concerns. 

IN the course of the preceding period we have 
seen poured upon the Roman empire a torrent of 
people from the North, who, conquering at last 
the famous legions which had subdued the worlds 
pushed their exploits so far as to destroy entirely 
the empire of the West, and to weaken that of 
the East. The commencement of this is distin- 
guished by an invasion very similar, but of a peo- 
ple from the South, and by consequence of very 
different manners and character from the former. 
The arms of those new conquerors were likewise 
destined to overthrow one of the seats of the 
empire, J:he only one which yet remained. In 
process of time the empire of the East was in fact 
destroyed by the followers of Mahomet; and the 
Arabians, whom he had raised to the highest 
pitch of religious and political fanaticism, pene- 
trated into the West by Spain even to the. center 
of Gaul 



<44ft A Sketch of the 

Mahomet died master of Arabia and part of 
Syria, after having founded a religion and a state 
closely united together under the worship of one 
Almighty God. With a few simple dogmas, 
which satisfied the mental wants of those rude, 
ardent men, the successors of the prophet, under 
the title of Califs, extended their conquests, and 
governed their vast dominions with great modera- 
tion and wisdom. They tolerated all sects of 
Christians who appeared in their eyes as the wor- 
shippers of a very great prophet, the fore-runner 
of their own. But they formed their closest con- 
nection with the Jacobites and other Oriental 
sects, whose inveterate hatred against the Greeks 
and Romans, their oppressors, afforded prodigious 
assistance to Islamism. These Christians multi- 
plied in peace under their new masters, and spread 
over Persia, India, Tartary, even as far as China. 

Whilst the storm of Islamism, yet only be- 
ginning, was heard making a hollow noise on the 
Southern frontier of the empire, Phocas, its un- 
worthy ruler, excited its indignation by his de- 
baucheries and cruelties. Heraclius, who suc- 
ceeded him, did more for the happiness of his 
subjects, but just as little for the safety of the 
empire. The most important affair of his reign 
was that which related to the religious doctrine 
known bv the name of Monothelism, or that of 
one will. People had long disputed about the 



History of the Church. 44 9 

two persons of Jesus, then about his two natures ; 
afterwards having agreed that he had two natures, 
they started the question, if it was necessary to 
suppose that each nature too had its particular 
will, and that Jesus had^ in fact two wills, one as 
God and another as man; or that on the contrary 
he had but one will, on account of the strict 
union between the two natures. For this last 
opinion the emperor declared himself. He ren- 
dered Monothelism victorious, which was keenly 
supported by Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, 
but condemned by the aged Sophronius, patriarch 
of Jerusalem, who died at the very time when 
the Saracens took possession of his See. These 
opinions concerning the single or double will of 
Jesus Christ long troubled the Christian com- 
munity. In vain Heraclius published the edict 
entitled Ektese, and Constans II equally in vain 
published that known under the appellation of 
Type. Meanwhile the new emperor displayed 
great severity against the disturbers of the church. 
The haughty Pope Martin the first, died in exile, 
into which he had been sent by Constans. This 
rigour cooled the rage for disputation, even pf the 
most ardent. Constantine, sirnamed Ppgonatus, 
the son of Constans, at last assembled at Con- 
stantinople the sixth of the ecumenical councils, 
in which Monothelism, and all its partisans, were 
anathematized, even to the Roman pontiff Hono*. 

G £ 



450 A Sketch of the 

rius, long since dead, who had shewn himself fa- 
vourable to the doctrine of one will. The Mo- 
nothelites of the empire, exasperated by this 
condemnation, took refuge among the Saracens, 
who allowed them peaceably to establish them- 
selves in the solitudes of Mount Lebanon, where 
they still subsist under the name of Maronites. 
The emperor too who had himself convoked the 
assembly presided in it, as supreme head of the 
Christian church. The patriarch of Constanti- 
nople was seated on his right hand, and the le- 
gates of Rome on his left. 

The losses which during more than half a cen- 
tury the church had been made to sustain in the 
East, by the conquests of the Saracens, redoubled 
the attention of the Roman pontiffs to recover 
those losses by new acquisitions in the West. 
Besides, the scymitar of the Mussulmans, which 
had thrown terror into all the Christian states, 
was the cause of uniting them into a more solid 
mass, and of drawing them more closely round 
him whom they were gradually becoming accus- 
tomed to regard as their head. The Papal throne 
is under more obligation than is generally appre- 
hended to Mahomet and his successors. But to- 
ward the establishment of an empire in the West, in 
which temporal interests were founded on spiritual, 
the only soldiers for whom the Pope had occasion 
were zealous, eloquent, indefatigable missionaries; 



HistGry of the Church 45 i 

and in England, then devotedly Catholic, he 
sought for apostles capable of combating idolatry 
with success among the Saxons and other German 
nations, as well as in the vast monarchy of the 
Franks. . Columhan, Gallus, Kilian, were drawn 
from the cloisters of Ireland to preach to the na- 
tions of the continent. They found in Pepin of 
Herstal a powerful protector. The Anglo-Saxon 
Willibrod laboured at the same time, and under 
the same auspices^ in the conversion of the 
Frisons and Flemings. The Roman pontiffs loaded 
those missionaries with favour and respect. Gre- 
gory II, after having thus attached to himself 
the English monk Winfried, known as the apostle 
of Germany under the title of Boniface, made 
him swear fealty and homage to the See and 
chtrch of Rome; and then sent him, furnished 
with magnificent letters of recommendation to all 
princes and bishops, to labour for the interests of 
Rome among the Hessians, the Thuringians, the 
Franks, the Bavarians, and Saxons. But what 
species of Christianity was preached to the nations 
by these envoys? Obedience to the Pope was its 
first principle: to endow and enrich the church, 
the monasteries and the clergy, was the certain 
road which they pointed out to salvation, the in- 
fallible means by which a man might escape the 
punishment of all crimes. At the same time too 
it is necessary to observe that those missionaries 
gg2 



452 A Sketch of the 

introduced some light and civilization among the 
barbarians whom they converted: and if their in- 
struction was not altogether pure from interest, 
or from superstition, it was far better, after all, 
than the gross mythology, and the idolatrous ob- 
servances of the north. 

But of all the religious schisms the most violent, 
and that which produced the most dreadful tu- 
mults, was that concerning the worship of images, 
with which it was reserved for the eighth century 
of the church to be afflicted. This disposition to 
honour the images of holy characters, whether 
pictures or statues, had appeared among the 
Christians for some centuries. It had been re- 
garded sometimes as a pious propensity, some- 
times as a superstition, sometimes as a thing in- 
different. In the west particularly, where the 
priests had to conduct so many rude and bar- 
barous people, images were of marvellous use for 
touching their senses, and exciting them to devo- 
tion. The monks had made some coarse attempts, 
but sufficient for the time, in painting and sculp- 
ture ; and had created a very lucrative traffic in 
images. Those, in particular, which adorned 
their churches, and to which they failed not to 
attribute miraculous virtues, attracted to them 
crowds of people and gifts. This is sufficient to 
shew how necessarily the clergy from the head to 
the lowest priest were bound to protect images 



History of the Church. 453 

and the worship which was paid to them. The 
emperor, Leo the Isaurian, formed, with the 
most upright intentions, the design of interdict- 
ing it. He quickly found how dearly he pays for 
his rashness who attacks the interest of those who 
have the power of rousing men's consciences. 
Revolts and insurrections followed. Blood flowed 
on all sides. The emperor was regarded as Anti- 
christ, who was come to destroy Christianity. To 
such a degree were the ideas of that pure and 
sublime religion already altered ! In vain did the 
emperor assemble councils, and depose his patri- 
arch. He lost all consideration, all peace, the 
exarchate of Ravenna, and the remainder of his 
power in the west. His partisans were anathema, 
tized, and branded with the mark of heresy, un- 
der the name of Iconoclasts. His successors 
found themselves involved in inextricable diffi- 
culties, until the ambitious Irene, courting popu- 
larity, restored to the multitude their beloved 
images, and even found a true cross for them to 
adore. The Roman pontiffs on the occasion of 
this long war of images, threw themselves into 
the arms of the Lombard princes, afterwards into 
those of the French Pepin the Short, on whose 
head the complaisant Zachary confirmed by his 
decision the crown which he had usurped, under 
the pretext that he was more worthy of it than 
the unfortunate Childeric whom Pepin had de- 



454 J Sketch of the 

throned. Thus far extended the caprice of the 
Isaurian against the images of the saints. The 
popes at that time made an important step towards 
the prerogative which they afterwards usurped of 
disposing of crowns. They connected themselves 
with the French monarchs. Stephen III, the 
successor of Zachary, called Pepin to his assistance 
against the Lombards. Pepin flew to the task, 
conquered, and made a present of the conquered 
territory and of an effective kingdom to the poll- 
's who had assisted him in preserving his crown. 
From this transaction is dated the sovereignty of 
the popes over a portion of Italy. The son of 
Pepin, that Charles who was truly worthy of the 
sirname of Great, had again occasion to go to 
the assistance of pope Adrian the First against the 
same Lombards. He destroyed their power and 
confirmed the donation of his father to the Holy 
See. A few years afterwards he was crowned at 
Rome by the grateful pope, and proclaimed Ro- 
man emperor of the West. Thus was reproduced, 
after it had been for nearly three centuries extinct, 
a phantom of the empire of the Caesars, which 
still subsists, but more feeble than ever, in our 
days, in the dignity become almost vain of the 
emperors of Germany. 

Charles did not confine his zeal for the church 
of Rome to the extermination of the Lombards. 
Jle resolved farther to exterminate . the ancient 



History of the Church. 455 

worship of Irmensual among the obstinate Saxons, 
and waged against them for this purpose a bloody 
war which lasted thirty-two years. His only 
crime with regard to papal orthodoxy was his not 
being favourable to the^ worship of images which 
he prohibited. He made great efforts to repress the 
disorders among the clergy and to promote know- 
ledge; an arduous attempt, in which Paul the dea r 
con, and Alcuin immortalized themselves by se- 
conding the views of their prince. Charlemagne, 
in other respects, governed the church as com- 
posing part of his state, as legislator and sove- 
reign. He further strengthened the line of dis- 
tinction which separated the Latin from the 
Greek church, in making it be declared in a 
council which he held at Aix-la-Chapelle, that the 
Holy Spirit proceeded equally from the Father and 
the Son; a doctrine held in abhorrence by the 
good Orientals who maintained that the Holy 
Spirit proceeded from the Father only. 

But the prince who had raised the popes so 
high, died, and carried along with him the vigour 
and the judgment necessary to restrain and keep 
them from mounting higher. Louis, so sadly 
known under the name of Meek, was the weak 
son of a great man, and the most unfortunate of 
fathers. He was made to do penance on his 
knees at Attigny before the prelates of his king- 
dom. And what a triumph, did the artful Gre» 

2 



456 A Sketch of the 

gory behold, what a prospect in futurity opened 
to his eyes, when his three rebellious sons, con- 
tending for the spoils of their father, chose him 
the judge of their differences, and thus recog- 
nised him as the sovereign arbiter of crowned 
heads. Here begins the period in which the 
bishopric of Rome became truly a sovereignty, 
and in which the court of Rome laboured most 
actively toward the inconceivable aggrandisement 
©f the power which it acquired. In a short time, 
on the occasion of a difference between an arch- 
bishop of Rheims and a bishop of Laon his ne- 
phew, first appeared the false decretals, the col- 
lection of which was attributed to one Isidore of 
Seville, an imaginary personage probably, and 
which were fabricated, as is supposed, at Mayence 
under the direction of some bishop devoted to 
Rome. The historical blunders and contradictions 
which are found in them have discovered their 
evident falsity. They obtained however but too 
much authority, in those days of ignorance, espe- 
cially after pope Nicolas the first recognised them 
formally as authentic. Their principal object was 
to weaken the authority of the metropolitans, t 
withdraw the bishops from their jurisdiction, to 
make them depend immediately upon Rome, in a 
word, to establish without limitation the spiritual 
monarchy of the popes. The bishops themselves 
found this more agreeable than to be watched and 



History of the Church. 45J 

restrained by censors too near them, and eager to 
maintain their own privileges, as the archbishops 
were. They could easily, besides, at Rome, by 
presents and intrigue, extinguish all accusations. 
The same ideas which the bishops entertained with 
regard to the metropolitans, all the inferior clergy, 
the monks, Sec. entertained with regard to the 
bishops. Every one chose rather to be directly 
under the jurisdiction of Rome, than under a ju- 
risdiction more severe and clear-sighted by its vi- 
cinity. Every one therefore laboured with ardour 
to increase the immediate power of the popes, 
who complaisantly yielded to the impulse. The 
princes too, on their part, found some advantage 
in those false decretals. They were happy to bring 
down the most powerful of their prelates, and 
were afraid of beholding' the metropolitans assume 
too great authority within their realms. It ap- 
peared to them more advisable to yield still greater 
authority to a foreign pontiff, by whose vicinity 
they were not offended, and whom besides they 
were accustomed to regard as a temporal prince, 
their colleague. A melancholy experience brought 
several princes in the sequel to perceive how false 
a policy they had pursued ; but when they wished 
to apply a remedy to the evil, they found it was 
incurable; they only increased by irritating it; and 
their resistance as well as their submission thus 



458. A Sketch of the 

contributed to the establishment of the papal 
monarchy. 

From the very commencement of Christianity, 
every age, every generation had taken up some 
idea, new or old, belonging to that religion, but 
obscure and undefined in its origin, which they 
fashioned, completed, fixed, and stamped, if the 
expression may be used, into current coin of the 
period. — In the ninth century it became the turn 
of the Eucharist. It had been always believed 
that the body and blood of Jesus were present in 
the bread and wine during the celebration of that 
sacrament. But in what manner were they pre- 
sent? — With, or under the bread and the wine? 
Was it the same body which was born of the vir- 
gin ? And like that body was it born without pre- 
judice to her virginity? Should leavened bread 
be used or unleavened? Ought the laity to receive 
the wine, or only the bread? These grave ques- 
tions exercised particularly the subtle logic of the 
monks; and Radbert, a benedictin of Corvey in 
Westphalia, appears to be the person who gave to 
the doctrine of the Eucharist that form which has 
since been adopted in the Romish church. Two 
of his adversaries, much more reasonable and 
better instructed than himself, Ratramus and the 
famous Scotus Erigena, declared in favour of an 
opinion which was nearly the same with that after- 



History of the Church. 45Q 

wards delivered by Luther. The same age wit- 
nessed also keen disputes concerning predestina- 
tion. Some were for Predestination; some were 
against it; and a third party were for two, one 
for good and another for evil. The popes, once 
recognised as judges, commonly decided in favour 
of those who shewed themselves most submissive, 
most devoted to their throne, or in favour of the 
opinions which most nearly resembled their own. 
In all cases they gained by those dissensions. 
Every division helped to confirm their dominion. 
Whether between sect and sect; bishops and 
archbishops; monks and priests; or clergy and 
laity; from all they derived advantage. Never 
was the old political adage more carefully put in 
practice. 

At last it was thought requisite to bring the 
Grecian church and bishops, so long divided from 
the Latin church, to recognise the supremacy of 
that church and of its head ; or on the other hand 
to cast them out of its communion, to separate 
from them, and to declare the JLatin alone, the 
universal church. The learned Photius who filled 
the See of Constantinople, at the same time that 
Nicolas the First occupied that of Rome, was not 
a man to yield to such pretensions, or to be ter- 
rified by threats. The two bishops quarreled, ex- 
communicated one another, and concluded by 
each retaining the title of universal bishop. The 



460 A Sketch of the 

schism was now completed, and no means were af- 
terwards sufficient to reconcile the two churches. 
Only when the Saracens landed in Sicily and Ca- 
labria, and when the pope conceived himself to 
stand in need of the assistance of the emperor of 
the east, he shewed himself a little more moderate 
towards the patriarch. In the west the excessive 
weakness of the latter princes of the race of 
Charlemagne, that of the king of France Charles 
the Bald, who degraded himself so far as publicly 
to make magnificent presents to pope John VIII, 
to obtain from him the imperial crown, established 
completely the power of those spiritual monarchs. 
But in the manner in which the pretensions of 
the See of Rome were increased, they could not 
fail to give umbrage to the princes who were 
vested with the imperial dignity, to the rights of 
which those pretensions were chiefly injurious. 
Then began the long and obstinate contests be- 
tween the emperors of Germany and the popes. 
The latter excommunicated, anathematised, de- 
posed the emperors, and excited against them 
their own people and other princes both Germans 
and foreigners. The emperors revenged them- 
selves by arms, imprisoned, deposed the popes, 
and raised up anti-popes. The temporal and the 
spiritual chiefs contending together, and inflicting 
upon one another the most serious wounds, began 
to appear the principal figures of western history. 



History of the Church 46 1 

Their parties were distinguished by the names 
which have become so famous, of Gihelins, and 
Guelphs. About the two antagonists were ranged 
the kings of France, of Hungary, of England, 
of Sicily, the Normans, the Danes, the Poles, 
who leagued and fought sometimes against one 
party and sometimes against another. In this 
struggle the temporal princes had every thing to 
lose and the popes nothing: for when they had 
lost their possessions, there remained to them the 
all-powerful empire of opinion ; and the vicar of 
Jesus Christ found always a sufficient number of 
princes who bent the knee before him, and a suf- 
ficient number of bishops who submissively courted 
investiture at his hands. 

As soon as the Roman pontiffs attained this 
summit of power and glory, the radiant circle of 
holiness which adorned the head of their humble 
predecessors grew dimmer every day, and at last 
disappeared altogether. All the vices of courts, 
and of the most corrupt courts in barbarous times, 
appeared without reserve in that of the successors 
of St. Peter. A pope who had been the personal 
enemy of his predecessor was seen ordering him 
to be dug out of the grave, instituting a process 
against his dead body, making his head and hand 
be cut off, and the whole to be thrown into the 
Tiber. During more than thirty years the prosti- 
tute Theodora, and her two daughters, not less 



462 A Sketch of the 

prostituted than herself, were seengoverning the 
pontiffs whose concubines they were, and by them 
the Christian church ; disposing of the papal 
chair, and conferring it upon their bastards or 
their paramours; making a sport of perfidy and 
murder; thus acting the prelude to the atrocity 
and debauchery of the reign of Borgia, destined 
to crown the work four centuries afterwards. To 
blind the eyes of nations toward so many usurpa^ 
tions, and crimes, the popes had need to main- 
tain ignorance and superstition. The monks, 
their faithful troops, degenerated also from their 
founders, served them to their wishes in that 
work of darkness. That age became the most 
barbarous within the period of modern history, 
and still bears the dishonourable epithet of the age 
of ignorance, which it justly receives above all 
others. While it lasted no heresy arose. The 
heretic is one who thinks differently from the 
orthodox man. At that time there was no think- 
ing. 

Let us further remark that to the end of this 
period belongs the honour of having formed Hil- 
debrand, who was pope in the beginning of the 
next, under the name of Gregory VII. He it is 
who disposed of the throne before he was placed 
on it; raised to it his friend Nicolas II, and made 
him decree in the same council of Rome which 



History of the Church 4fe 

condemned Berenger,* that the election of the 
sovereign pontiff belonged to the seven suffragan 
bishops of Rome, and the twenty-eight curates of 
the city, who all took the title of cardinals. This 
was the last usurpation on the rights of the peo- 
ple and the emperor, an usurpation which com- 
pleted the independence of the church upon all 
civil authority. 

* The famous archdeacon of Antwerp, who refused to admit 
the .opinion of the monk Radbert in regard to the eucharist^ Gr 
to believe in transnbstantiation. 



464 A Sketch of the 

FOURTH PERIOD. DESPOTISM, 

(From Hildebrand to Luther— 1073 to 1517.) 

SECTION FIRST, 

The authority of the Romish See becomes unlimited. 
The Popes are regarded as the representatives 
of God, and the earth as their domain. 

1HE see of Rome had not as yet been occup'ed 
by any Pope who, like Hildebrand, united all the 
qualities requisite for extending its power. Im- 
perious, ardent, inflexible, but full of the most 
profound dissimulation, he began with making 
himself be elected without the consent of the 
emperor, and then wrote to him in submissive 
terms. Supported by the division of the German 
princes, the favour of the dukes of Normandy, 
and above all by the complete sway which the 
Countess Matilda of Tuscany gave him over her, 
he displayed in the first moments of his reign, 
what was to be expected from it, contesting 
boldly with the emperor the right of investiture, 
which he maintained belonged to himself. At the 
same time he put in execution the most politic 
plan which was ever conceived by any Pope, a 
plan for procuring to the Holy See as many subjects 



History of the Church. 485 

as there were priests in the Christian world, by 
disconnecting them with their respective countries, 
and yielding them up without reserve to the head 
of the church ; he decreed, I say, in a positive 
manner, the celibacy of the clergy. Hitherto 
that species of abstinence had been converted 
into a practical rule, only in the caSe of the monks. 
The German clergy, whom that measure pro- 
digiously offended, joined their discontent to that 
of the emperor, and in a council assembled at 
Worms, where that monarch presided, Gregory 
the Seventh was declared to have forfeited the 
papal throne. Among other heads of accusation 
they charged him with being an apostate monk 
(falsus monachus,) a sorcerer, (divinaculus, som - 
niorum, prodigiorumque corrector, manifestus ne~ 
cromanticus,) an incendiary, -a perpetrator of sa- 
crilege, a murderer, a liar, a favourer of adultery, 
and incest. # This act of accusation, as well as 
his condemnation and his life, whi^h had been 
written for that purpose, and in the above stile. 
Were sent to him by the emperor, to bring him 
to submission. Gregory, on his side too, had 
convoked an assembly at Rome, and the imperial 
envoy had the courage to present to him his dis- 
patches in the midst of the assembly. Gregory 
look them with a calm air, made them be read in 

* Phil.. -Mornayi Hist. Papatus. Ann, iQSO, p. 234, 

Hh 



455 A Sketch of the 

full council , and heard them without the least 
alteration of countenance ; then,, still with the 
same deportment, he made the votes of the bi- 
shops be taken. On their decision he declared 
those of the council of Worms suspended ; ex- 
communicated Henry, who had presided in it - T 
condemned that prince to lose his imperial dig- 
nity ; and absolved all his subjects from their 
eath of fidelity, forbidding all persons whatsoever 
to obey him in time to come under the same 
penalty of excommunication. Philip, king of 
France, had already been menaced by Hildebrand 
with an anathema. Spain> Bohemia, Hungary 
and other Christian countries had been harassed 
with his pretensions and terrified with his threats. 
The thunders of Gregory did not fall in vain. 
Henry, abandoned by all his subjects, was obliged 
to send his crown and its ornaments to the 
haughty priest, and to go in person to bend 
down before him. In the month of December 
he lived on bread and water during three days and 
three nights, in an open court, with naked feet. 
After this penitence, he received absolution for 
the fault he had committed, in judging too exactly 
the person of Hildebrand, and too impartially 
the power of superstition and fanatacism in an 
age like his. The Pope enjoyed from one of the 
windows of his castle, where he was shut up with 
Matilda, the exquisite pleasure of seeing an 



History of the Church. 467 

emperor in hair cloth and with naked feet, in 
his court. The reconciliation which followed 
was only apparent. Gregory ceased not to op- 
pose another emperor to , the emperor, as he op- 
posed to him an antipope. Henry having at last 
assembled an army, passed into Italy, took Pome, 
and would have got possession of the person of 
the Pope himself who shut himself up in the 
castle of St. Angelo, had not Robert Guiscard 
come from Naples to deliver him. Two years 
afterwards Hildebrand died at Salerno, without 
having testified any desire to be reconciled with 
the emperor. 

To Gregory has been attributed the first idea 
of reconquering Palestine, with an army of 
Christians, from the Arabians and Turks who 
then began to be conspicuous. However this 
may be, it was only a few years after his death, 
when that great movement began to be accom- 
plished which cost Europe so much blood, but 
reoaid her with some illumination : which accus- 

JL ' 

tomed her people to make a common cause, to 
fight together, and to look upon themselves as a 
mass of confederate states, animated by a com- 
mon interest. In an armament of all Christendom, 
it is easy to perceive that the Pope, recognized as 
the supreme head of that sacred army, in which 
every warrior enrolled himself as a soldier of the 
churchy must End a great augmentation of his 

H H 2 



468 A Sketch of the 

authority. The power and activity of the sove- 
reigns which were carried away to be wasted in 
Asia, left the field more open for him in Europe. 
The church was enriched by the sale which then 
took place, of a vast quantity of property, and 
by the legacies of pious warriors who died ,in the 
Holy Land. Powerful orders of chivalry were 
established, and afforded to the church their 
swords together with their possessions. The 
sovereigns on their side, amid all their losses, 
beheld their great vassals lose still more, and 
reduced to weakness beyond recovery. These 
few reflections will suffice to shew what influence 
the crusades had upon the constitution and civi- 
lization of Europe. 

It is to Gregory the Seventh too we may refer 
the origin of indulgences, those pardons for the 
other life of whatsoever crimes a man can commit 
in this, those bills of exchange upon heavea, 
which the Popes made afterwards to be so dearly 
paid for upon the earth, and the traffic in which, 
carried to a disgusting abuse, became the first 
occasional cause of the reformation of Luther, 
The soldiers of the cross who went to. die in the 
field of battle, and surrounded by infidels, with- 
out priests or confessors, had, according to the 
adopted system, need of those immunities ; and 
their employment in such a case had an appear- 
ance of reason. But when they were extended 
3 



History of the Church. 46g 

to people who went not from their Own homes, 
they evidently became then only taxes imposed 
upon the credulity and the vices of men. 

From the period at which we are now arrived, 
about the end of the eleventh century, till the com- 
mencement of the fourteenth, is placed the era of 
the unlimited power of the Popes over the Christian 
world. The Romish see was during those two 
centuries filled by men of great talents and of 
consummate policy: only a small number of them 
shewed any moderation, and any christian virtues. 
The history of the external relations of the 
church, beside the crusades, at first crowned with 
success, and afterwards fatal to the princes by 
whom they were undertaken, presents the spec- 
tacle, a hundred times repeated, of nations in- 
terdicted, of kings excommunicated, and de- 
clared to have forfeited their crowns ; of those 
kings at times inflicting injuries in their turn, 
creating antipopes, carrying war even to the gates 
of Rome, at times yielding meanly, and abasing 
themselves before the Popes so far as even to kiss 
their feet, to perform the vilest offices in their 
service, and to confess that they held of them 
their dominions. To relate all these shameful 
events is the business of history. The object of 
this sketch is only to point out hastily the dif- 
ferent changes which happened in the constitution 
of the Christian society. 



470 A Sketch of the 

Gregory VII completed the work of Papal om- 
nipotence. His successors^ who were able, during 
more than two centuries, to support it at the 
height to which he had raised it_, and who some- 
times used it with a severity which at present we 
find it difficult to conceive, thought only of the 
means of sanctioning and establishing it on a more 
solid foundation. It was not enough that this 
omnipotence existed in fact; it was also necessary 
that it should appear to exist by right, and to be 
founded on positive laws. The decretals of the 
pretended Isidore were admirable for this purpose ; 
but efforts were used to add to them, and among 
several celebrated works composed for that end it 
is sufficient here to name the famous Decretum of 
the monk Gratian^ and the booh of Sentences of 
father Lombard, archbishop of Paris, which gave 
the last blow to the authority of princes as well as 
to that of bishops ; and reduced the despotism of 
Hildebrand to an argumentative and pious system 
of canon law, which became from that time the 
most sacred article of the Christianity of the 
West. Books alone, however, were not suffi- 
cient; interpreters were wanting, living organs, 
guardians, to maintain their doctrines. The men- 
dicant orders were created ; and to them was en- 
trusted the duty of cultivating and training the 
vine of the lord; dangerous ministers, who spee- 
dily quarreled, fought, and often gave abundance 



History of the Church, 47 1 

of employment to the sovereign pontiffs. The 
most remarkable of these orders was that of the 
Dominicans^ because at the same time with them 
was produced, and in the same cradle was nursed, 
the horrible inquisition, whose first essay was the 
massacre of several thousand Albigenses and other 
Christians, who, in their simplicity, imagined they 
might believe in Christ without believing in the 
Popes; and the devastation of the dominions 
of Count Raymond of Thoulouse, who had to- 
lerated them. The institution of the crusades 
was then turned from its first direction, and em- 
ployed by the Pope to arm Christians against 
Christians. Some voices were raised here and 
there against so many abuses and cruelties, so 
opposite to the spirit of Christianity; but they 
were Immediately extinguished. Arnould of Bres- 
cia, and Peter of Bruys, perished in the flames, 
a punishment which its resemblance to the fire of 
hell made afterwar^ be adopted for all the enemies 
of the Holy See. Waldo established in some re- 
tired vallies of the Alps a small independent sect, 
which long escaped persecution, but which at a 
later period paid for this good fortune by much 
blood and torture. 

It is therefore not without reason that this pe- 
riod is here characterised by the word despotism, 
and that it begins with the reign of Hildebrand. 
The papal omnipotence during its course was dis- 



472 A Sketch of the 

played in the humiliation, pushed to excess, of all 
Christian princes and people; rebels everywhere 
encouraged against legitimate authority when that 
of the Pope was in any respect opposed by it ; 
sovereigns dispossessed and excommunicated as 
well as their subjects; crowns taken off, put on, 
and sold, according to the interests or passions of 
the Pontiff, the bishops and clergy of all Catholic 
countries subjected to his will, receiving from him 
the investiture of their offices, and holding of 
him almost entirely. So that the hierarchy formed 
every where a state within the state, under the law 
of a foreign, despotical chief, who thus disposed of 
all consciences, and of almost all the riches in the 
country. The means employed by the court of 
Rome to support so many usurpations were, 
beside the false historical proofs which imposed 
upon the ignorance of the times, boldness, con- 
stancy, unity of plan, which always prevail over 
the weakness and division of adversaries, the ce- 
libacy of the clergy, auricular confession, the 
establishment of the mendicant orders, that of the 
inquisition, the crusades undertaken by the Chris- 
tian princes under the authority of the church, 
the immense sums which all the countries of the 
West poured, under different denominations (ty thes, 
St. Peter's pence, taxes, dispensations, &c.) into 
the pontifical treasury,— indulgences, jubilees, the 
doctrine of purgatory (a powerful support) that 



History of the Church. 473 

of transubstantiation, the worship of saints, that 
of relics, of miraculous images, pilgrimages, every 
thing in short calculated to transfer religion to the 
senses of man, and by consequence to encourage 
and excite fanaticism, by depriving the mind of 
the right of examination and judgment. 

This picture, which assuredly is not that of the 
holy and beneficent religion of Chkist, but that 
of the hierarchical constitution of the Western 
church in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth 
centuries, cannot appear exaggerated, even to the 
most zealous defenders of popery. History has a 
right to complete the picture at present with the 
same fidelity with which in time past she has 
drawn the different lines. All is written; the de- 
posit, entrusted to ages, has come down to us ; 
and the bitter truth can neither be disguised nor 
controverted. In addition, however, it cannot be 
disputed that the greatest talents, perseverance, 
policy and courage, were necessary to rear to per- 
fection, to, uphold and maintain the wonderful 
edifice of papal domination; that immense Co- 
lossus which oppressed the earth, and which de- 
rived all its strength from the opinion, so firmly 
established, that it reigned in the name of heaven. 

The successive changes in the constitution 
and dogmas of the church have been exhibited in 
this sketch ; events fall not within its sphere. It 
is necessary, however, to remark, that according 



474 A Sketch of the 

to the natural disposition of the human mind 
amid so much constraint and confusion, philo- 
sophy could be nothing but theology, and theo- 
logy could be nothing but an inextricable labyrinth 
of sophisms and subtleties. The activity of the 
finest geniuses of the times being unable to take any 
ether direction, their strength served only to engage 
them farther in difficulties, and more indissolubly 
to fasten the cords by which they were entangled. 
For the reigning system of theology was required 
a logic, pliable, full of distinctions and divisions, 
and, by which, means might be furnished of being 
in the right in spite of all obstacles. That of 
Aristotle, corrupted and misinterpreted, appeared 
convenient for this purpose. Hence in the schools 
it was intimately incorporated with theology, and 
became almost equally sacred. The logic of the 
preceptor of Alexander (how strange a destiny!) 
became one of the strongest pillars of the throne 
of Hildebrand. Thus was produced the scholastic 
philosophy, to which, notwithstanding all its ab- 
surdities, the human mind was at first indebted 
for some progress. Its first apostles were Lan- 
franc, Roscelinus, Abelard, and his intolerant 
rival Bernard. Though those times were covered 
with darkness and superstition, we yet find in 
them, besides the names already mentioned, those 
of Albert sirnamed the Great, of Thomas Aqiii- 
naSj of John Duns Scotus, of Roeer Bacon and 



History of the Church. A*] 5 

of Raymond Lully. This, however, does not 
prevent the angels, at the same period, from tran- 
sporting the house of the Holy Virgin from Pa- 
lestine to Dalmatia, and thence to Loretto; and 
the emperor Rodolphas, of Habsburg, from being 
obliged formally to recognize the sovereignty of 
Pope Nicolas III, over the exarchate of Ravenna, 



476 d Sketch of the 



SECTION SECOND. 

The Dignity of the Romish See is diminished; hence 
its Authority is impaired. Learning is revived ; 
and the Church feels the Want of a Reformation. 

XT is when despotism is proceeding with the 
greatest violence, that it is in most danger of im- 
pinging on an obstacle, and receiving injury from 
the rudeness of the shock. Intoxicated with his 
authority, with a power which had sported with 
crowned heads for ages, the haughty Boniface 
VIII, instigated by personal resentment against 
the king of France, conceived he might treat 
him with the despotical insolence of his prede- 
cessors. But he found in Philip the handsome, a 
firmness worthy of the ruler of a great people. 
Notwithstanding the second crown which Boniface 
had just added to the tiara, and the imperial orna- 
ments with which he had publicly vested himself 
at Rome, Philip found the means of having him 
arrested in the middle of his dominions by a few 
soldiers under the conduct of the chancellor No- 
garet, who was the soul of the whole enterprise. 
Boniface died in a few weeks after, perhaps of 
grief for the affront which he had thus sustained. 
This check would have been of no consequence 



History of the Church. 4?7 

with regard to the papal monarchy; had not the 
king of France, after the short pontificate of the 
successor of Boniface, who had by a singular good 
fortune to dispose of the votes of the sacred col- 
lege, made the tiara be offered to a French bishop, 
under the express condition that he should reside 
in France. The prelate, being dazzled, fell into 
the snare; promised what was demanded, was 
elected Pope under the name of Clement V, and 
fixed his throne at Avignon in France. He quickly 
found that Rome, destined twice to be mistress of 
the world, could not yield her prerogative to any 
other city. What the emperors had lost by trans- 
ferring their seat, the Popes lost also by transfer- 
ring theirs; and Avignon was to the last what 
Byzantium had been to the former. Perhaps it 
was something worse; for besides the transference 
of the seat of power, always disadvantageous in 
itself, Clement V found himself in a foreign soil, 
and in the power of Philip. This captivity of the 
Popes continued seventy years. It introduced a 
principle of destruction into the papal system. 
The colossus was still seen to move, to live, to 
languish, to make here and there convulsive efforts; 
but like certain poisons, which have been described, 
whose slow effects are produced insensibly, and 
break out only at a precise term, in like manner 
the papal system was then attacked with a secret 



4/8 A Sketch of the 

languor which only allowed it a certain duration 
of life, which was continually wasting. 

The kings of France in this manner taught 
other potentates how they might brave the com- 
ir.on despot, and render his thunders vain, by 
securing his person. Clement V was speedily 
constrained to annul solemnly all that Boniface 
had attempted against Philip, and to institute a 
process against the memory of that Pope, in 
which he was charged with the most horrible 
crimes. He was obliged to sign the destruction of 
the Templars, whose ruin Philip had sworn. In 
a word the Popes, during that long series of 
years, were nothing but an instrument in the 
hands of the French monarch s, who excom- 
municated, laid under interdicts, deposed their 
rivals, and directed the sacred artillery of the 
pontiff, according as it suited their interest, leaving 
him free course in other quarters, against other 
Christian states, such as Venice, for example, 
which at that time had violent disputes with the 
pontiffs. Meanwhile the other princes failed not 
quickly to perceive this management, and to make 
it be observed by their people. The bishops, and 
clergy of other countries, awaked from the long 
trance of their passive obedience, began to de- 
spise a master who was no longer his own. The 
fascination of papacy began to dissolve, and men's 

2 



History of the Church. 47 Q 

eyes gradually to open. Rome revolted; and be- 
came the prey, sometimes of the emperor, some- 
times of other conquerors. It had also its inter- 
vals of liberty, during which it indulged in the 
glittering dream of reviving its ancient indepen- 
dence and splendour. A multitude of little tyrants 
divided among them the states of the successor of 
St. Peter. The Pope was not even sovereign in 
his new residence, and when at last he acquired 
the sovereignty of Avignon, he was still no less 
blockaded and watched in that little inclosure by 
the French, who were his masters as before. It 
is easy to see that incalculable evils to the Holy- 
See must have resulted from this position. 

Of all courts that of the pontiff had long been 
the most brilliant, that whose luxury consumed 
the greatest treasures. Among the cares which 
occupied the Popes, one of the most urgent was 
that of enriching their families. This had long 
been a prodigious weight upon Christianity; but 
the streams of gold which hitherto had taken their 
course towards Rome, were not turned aside to- 
wards Avignon. Princes prohibited the exporta- 
tion of money which would have gone partly to 
fill the coffers of the kings of France. These 
granted to their prisoner only a very moderate 
tribute, making their own clergy contribute to the 
expences of the state, and of the wars carried on 
with their neighbours. Hence the necessitv under 



480 A Sketch of the 

which the Popes were laid of attempting new 
means to draw money from the clergy and people- 
Indulgences and dispensations were multiplied in 
every shape, and at last became openly scan- 
dalous: the Popes exacted a portion of the reve- 
nues of vacant benefices, and on that account left 
the greater part of episcopal sees without incum- 
bents ; they exacted a considerable duty, a year's 
revenue on each change of a see, and for that 
reason multiplied those changes in such a manner 
as to excite discontent both among the flocks and 
pastors. In this manner the papal exchequer in- 
vented, with its mischievous activity, its annates, 
its expectances, provisions, reservations, taxes of 
all sorts for the pardon of all crimes, even the 
most abominable. The 'patience of people was 
worn out; murmurs arose on all sides; writers 
prompted by their own conviction, and by the 
favour of princes, published bold performances, 
in which the usurpations of the Popes were at*- 
tacked, and- the rights of princes defended against 
them. • Then it was that the emperor of Germany 
concluded he might dispense with the custom of 
making his election be confirmed by the sovereign 
pontiffs, a custom to which his predecessors had 
submitted for several generations. 

A quarrel which arose among the Franciscans, 
and in which the Popes engaged, was followed by 
disagreeable consequences. The pontifical au- 



History of the Church. 481 

ihority supported the party which was notoriously 
most guilty ; and had raised extremely high the 
resentment of the party which was recommended 
by the most engaging appearance of sanctity. 
The discontented Franciscans, exasperated against 
the Popes, alienated from them the minds of the 
people. Those good monks and a great number 
of their partisans, regarded the Holy Father ac- 
cording to the favourite similitude of the times, 
as nothing but antichrist: they enjoyed great, in- 
fluence and popularity ; their sermons augmented 
the discredit into which .the Popes had fallen, and 
the fermentation which became dangerous. 

This was carried to a height by the division of 
the cardinals into two factions, that of the Italians 
and that of the French, who had become pre-* 
ponderant during the long residence of the Popes 
in France. They soon proceeded to an open 
rupture, and chose, with an authority, and upon 
reasons which appeared to be equally balanced, 
the one a Cisalpine, the other a transalpine Pope. 
The kings of France had acquired a taste for dis- 
posing of the Pope of Avignon : most other 
princes wished to see him again at Rome. Hence 
that great and scandalous schism which lasted 
forty years. The church had then two heads and 
sometimes three, whom with terror it beheld 
anathematizing one another, fulminating, re- 
proaching one another with the most odious 

Ii 



482 A Sketch of the 

vices, calling one another antichrist, heretics, 
usurpers. The people, thrown into astonishment 
and doubt, knew not in which of the adversaries 
they ought to believe, and generally concluded with 
equally despising them all. The assembly of 
the representatives of the church, the coun- 
cils, laid hold of the opportunity to recover 
the authority of which the despotism of Rome 
had deprived them. Those which assembled 
at Pisa, at Constance, and Basle, made and 
unmade Popes, summoned them before them, 
tried them, made the reformation of the 
church, so much desired, the order of the day, 
and proclaimed the long forgotten principle, so 
often anathematized both before and after this 
period : that a council is above the Pope. But a 
circumstance more dangerous than all schisms, 
and all the efforts of princes against a domination 
established on ignorance and false historical 
proofs, was the revival of learning, which after a 
total eclipse of about two centuries, had already 
here and there manifested some faint dawnings, 
some symptoms of the morning, and began to 
throw a pretty clear light about the end of the 
fourteenth century. It was a matter of some 
importance that at the beginning of this century 
Nicolas de Lyre, in the university of Paris, 
which has so boldly exerted itself in opposition 
jto the pretensions of the Popes, commented 



History of the Church. 483 

public!) 7 on the text of the Scriptures themselves, 
and by a learned exposition restored an acquaint- 
ance, well nigh lose, with that common charter 
of Christians. Marsilius of Padua, Dante, Boc- 
caccio, Petrarch i created a taste for literature, ex- 
tended its rising empire^ and attacked the papal 
system with different arms, yet equally capable of 
wounding. An ardour for learning ; the doubts 
to which it gives occasion ; and criticism by 
which it is enlightened, sprung up in all quarters. 
Universities resembling that of Paris were esta- 
blished in Bohemia, Germany and England. At 
the same time appeared in the latter country the 
learned WicklifF, with a literal translation of the 
New Testament, and the most powerful arguments 
against the papal system, which he attacked with 
an heroic firmness. Still more courageous, and 
with equal learning, the unfortunate John Huss 
preached the same doctrine in Bohemia with much 
greater success, and founded there a formidable 
sect, who afterwards defended themselves by arms 
under the intrepid and fortunate Ziska, their 
military leader. It is well known with what mag- 
nanimity the sage of Prague mounted the pile of 
Constance, on which he was thrust by the most 
perfidious fanaticism, in contempt of an imperial 
safe-conduct and -the most sacred promises. His 
disciple Hieronymus or Jerome displayed on the 
■.■-'.- i i 2 ■ • 



484 A Sketch of the 

same pile, the constancy and firmness of his 
master. But in vain did the tyrants burn bodies 5 
thoughts were beyond the reach of the flames, 
and these, flying with rapidity from one mind to 
another, every where distributed the fruitful seeds 
of science and liberty. 

Here events crowd upon the attention of the 
historian who seeks only results. He finds him- 
self on a declivity ; gravitation makes him ac- 
celerate his pace ; every thing flies and disappears 
behind him, till having arrived at another plain, 
he sees the objects steadfast and in order which 
had passed so rapidly before his eyes. 

The Popes delivered from the captivity, and 
afterwards from the antipopedom of Avignon, 
fancied themselves restored to the happy times of 
Hildebrand and his successors. Every thing 
about them at Rome crouched before them ; 
opulence had returned to their court ; flattery 
and pleasure rendered them indifferent to the 
public sentiments which they despised from igno- 
rance. The most artful policy, natural to a power 
so weak in reality, and only powerful by intrigue, 
by the talent of fascinating the eyes of men, was 
put in practice by them, to sow divisions among 
the princes and to support themselves. Nothing 
proves more fully how scrupulously this system 
was followed from Pope to Pope, than the exam- 
ple jjf ./Eneas Sylvius^ an ardent reformer of the 
3 



History of the Church* 485 

church under that title, and the author of an 
energetic composition, which forms part of the 
acts of the council of Basle, against Eugenius the 
Fourth. Scarcely was he elected Pope himself, 
under the title of Pius the Second, when he re- 
tracted every thing in an express bull, and became 
an ardent zealot for all the prerogatives of his 
see.* At last the disregard to all character and 
decency, the habit and effrontery of crimes, exhi- 
bited themselves in all their deformity in the 
court of Borgia, Pope under the name of Alex- 
ander the Sixth. The very name of this disgrace 
of the papacy speaks more than that of the Neros 
and Domitians, under whom Rome had already 
groaned. It is- easy to perceive how much a 

* Who would have said that the same man who at Basle had 
spoken the language of reason, and had supported the au- 
thority of the church assembled in council, against that of the 
Popes, could, a few years afterwards, have expressed himself 
in the following manner in a bull, against all those who should 
appeal to a council ? ff Execrabilis, et pristinis temporibus in- 
auditus, tempestate nostra inolevit abusus, ut a Romano Pon- 
tifice, J. C. Vicario, nonnulli spiritu rebellionis imbuti, ad 
futurum concilium provocare prsesumant. Nutritur adversus 
primam sedem rebellio,. . . .volentes igitur hoc pestiferum virus 
procul pellere, hujusmodi provocationes damnamus. Si quis 
autena contra fecerit, cujuscunque status, gradus, ordinis, vel 
conditionis merit; etiam si imperiali, regali, vel pontificali 
praefulgeat dignitate, ipso facto sententium execrationis in- 
currat, et eas paenas ac cecsuras, quas rei majestatis incurrerfc 
dlgeoscuntur." Bullar. Magn. Tom. I. p. 369. 



4S6 A Sketch of the 

pontiff of this description must have alienated 
the hearts and minds of men from a church of 
which he was the head. The most sincere 
Catholics were shocked and confounded. Their 
indignation was raised to behold the contributions 
of the Christian world perverted to such shameful 
purposes, and the censures of the church in so 
unworthy hands. Ten years after this execrable 
pontificate, began that of the frivolous Leo the 
Tenth, a petit -maitre Pope, fond of pleasure, 
averse to business, a great protector of the arts 
which yielded him pleasure and flattered his 
vanity ; for we must not let this circumstance de- 
ceive us. That protection, so much celebrated, 
which Leo the Tenth afforded to painters, musi- 
cians, poets, and some writers of his time, had 
no other origin than the amusement which he 
expected from them, than habit, and if you will 
a certain delicacy of taste which he had acquired 
in the house of his father, the celebrated Medicis. 
The Popes protected men of talents so long as 
they saw in them only courtiers who flattered 
them, artificers of pleasure, or agreeable com- 
panions. When they began to perceive that in 
the productions of genius was concealed the light 
before which /superstition must fly, they perse- 
cuted and mortified genius ; they would gladly 
have extinguished the light which at first they 
had assisted to produce. Leo ? moreover, feigned 



History of the Church. 487 

like all his predecessors, a wish to make war upon 
the infidels, and to reconquer the tomb of Jesus 
Christ ; an usual pretext for new exactions. The 
luxury of his court consumed every thing. He 
wished also to complete the superb church of St. 
Peter. To supply those demands it was necessary 
to have recourse to new indulgences. The pub- 
lication of them roused that impatience and indig- 
nation which brooded in all quarters. The Re- 
formation followed, of the consequences of which 
we have given an account; and the celebrated 
church erected for the prince of the apostles was 
the mass which crushed the power of his successors. 
Who would suppose, that while in the West 
men were slaughtering one another to determine 
whether the head of the church, or the head of 
the empire, should command, and have the pre- 
eminence, the Greeks were disputing with the 
most desperate fury about this question, namely, 
H What was the nature of the light seen by the 
Apostles upon Mount Tabor, was it created or 
uncreated ? God or not God ?" The leaders, and 
other considerable members of the vanquished 
and persecuted party, came to seek refuge in 
Italy, and there promoted the taste for literature, 
A short time after, when the seat pf the Greek 
empire itself fell by the power of the Turks, the 
emigration of men of letters towards Italy was 
still greater, Those fugitives, to w T hom nothing 



4Q0 A Sketch, &c. 

could efficaciously oppose the formidable Charles'* 
Young, ardent j full of courage, and of the desire 
to signalize himself; powerful by the annexation 
to his crown of almost all the territory of France ; 
delivered from the English, and from all his too 
powerful vassals, he could hazard, and it became 
him to hazard, the contest. Such was the preca- 
rious and eventful situation of Europe. Every 
thing gave indication that the world was on the 
point of some great explosion^ which would form 
one of the epochs of its history. The new world 
was discovered ; and human thought appeared to 
have expanded like the ocean on passing the 
boundaries of our ancient hemisphere. The art 
of printing, which for ever excluded the return of 
barbarity, and facilitated the diffusion of know- 
ledge, was invented; when a man of courage 
arose, who feared not to declare, " that the church 
of Christ wanted Reformation ; to be purged of 
its abuses, and restored to its primitive spirit; 
that if the bishop of Rome would not consent to 
this Reformation, it ought to be performed with- 
out him.'* This man was Martin Luther; and 
the Reformation was accomplished under his con- 
duct in a considerable part of the church. 



THE END 



€. and R. Baldwin, Printers, 
New iridge-ttreet, Londaa. 



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